A pivotal ruling expected this week from the top chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) could reignite Caster Semenya’s long-running legal battle over sex eligibility rules that barred her and other athletes from major competitions, including the Olympics and world championships.
If the panel upholds a 2023 decision in Semenya’s favor, it would renew scrutiny of regulations requiring some female athletes to medically reduce their natural testosterone levels to compete, potentially opening a legal pathway for the rules to be overturned.
The outcome could have wide-ranging implications beyond track and field, where the policies originated. It may further inflame a broader debate politicized by figures including U.S. President Donald Trump, who claim the future of women’s sports is at stake.
The regulations have become a blueprint for other governing bodies confronting eligibility questions involving athletes like two-time Olympic champion Semenya.
The case centers on whether athletes like Semenya, who have specific medical conditions, a typical male chromosome pattern, and naturally high testosterone levels, should be allowed to compete in women’s sports without medical intervention.
Track authorities argue the rules are necessary to ensure fairness, claiming Semenya gains an unfair, male-like advantage from her elevated hormone levels. Semenya maintains her testosterone is a natural, genetic trait.
The Grand Chamber of the European Court – comprising 17 judges and reserved for the most important and complex cases – said it will deliver its verdict Thursday, nearly two years after deliberations began. The judges will decide whether to uphold the earlier ruling that found Semenya may have been discriminated against and prevented from pursuing her profession.
Semenya refused to take medication to lower her testosterone, and the rules effectively ended her competitive career.
Another win for Semenya would not immediately eliminate the regulations but would allow her legal challenge to continue. If the Grand Chamber rules against her, the case would likely end, as its decisions cannot be appealed.
Semenya’s career has been fraught with controversy since she burst onto the international scene as an unknown teenager in 2009 and won the world title in the 800 meters. She was immediately subjected to sex tests.
Semenya is not transgender – a point often misunderstood. She was assigned female at birth, raised as a girl, and has always identified as female. However, she has one of several conditions known as differences of sex development, or DSDs, which lead to testosterone levels beyond the typical female range.
World Athletics, track and field’s governing body, provoked outrage when it described Semenya as “biologically male.”
The organization introduced its regulations in 2018, requiring female athletes with DSDs to lower their testosterone in order to compete internationally.
Semenya challenged the rules but lost at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland in 2019 and again at the Swiss Supreme Court in 2020. Her 2023 appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, marked her first major legal victory.
The court found that the regulations appeared to violate her rights and that “serious questions” regarding the effects of hormone suppression had not been adequately addressed – including the use of birth control medications to lower testosterone.
If the Grand Chamber agrees on Thursday, the case could return to the Swiss Supreme Court and potentially to the Court of Arbitration for Sport – a process that could still take years.
The final direction of Semenya’s case may have consequences for other high-profile Olympic sports. Swimming, for instance, adopted similar rules barring female athletes with high natural testosterone following World Athletics’ precedent.
Football is currently reviewing its eligibility regulations for female athletes and may introduce hormone-based thresholds. Track and field has tightened its rules since 2019.
Female eligibility is a major issue for the International Olympic Committee under its new president, Kirsty Coventry. The IOC currently allows individual sports federations to set their own eligibility criteria. However, Coventry has signaled that the IOC should now take the lead – echoing the stance of many of her opponents in March’s election, which she won.
A sex eligibility controversy at last year’s Paris Olympics involving female boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan also stirred tensions and led to public backlash. In response, boxing authorities announced plans for new sex eligibility testing.
Semenya’s case could set a legal precedent, as no other athlete has brought forward a comparable challenge. She last competed internationally in 2019 and had dominated the 800-meter event, winning more than 30 consecutive races before becoming ineligible.
Now 34, Semenya has transitioned into coaching and says her ongoing legal fight is no longer about reviving her own career, but about principles.
“It’s a battle for human rights now,” Semenya told a South African newspaper last month. “It’s not about competing. It’s about putting athletes’ rights first. It’s about the protection of athletes.”
