Two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya scored a partial victory Thursday at the European Court of Human Rights in her protracted seven-year battle against track and field’s sex eligibility regulations.
In a 15-2 ruling, the court’s 17-judge Grand Chamber found that Semenya’s right to a fair hearing had been violated by Switzerland’s Supreme Court, which upheld the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision favoring World Athletics.
As a result, her case will be sent back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne for reconsideration.
Europe’s top human rights court in Strasbourg, France, dismissed other aspects of the appeal filed by Semenya, who was in court to hear the judgment read. It awarded her 80,000 euros ($94,000) “in respect of costs and expenses.”
The European court’s ruling does not overturn World Athletics’ rules that effectively ended Semenya’s career running the 800 meters after she won two Olympic and three world titles.
The key legal point in Semenya’s win was that the Swiss Federal Court had not carried out a “rigorous judicial review” required because Semenya had no choice but to pursue her case through the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s “mandatory and exclusive jurisdiction,” the Strasbourg judges ruled.
Governing bodies of Olympic sports require athletes and national federations to take their disputes to the sports court in the International Olympic Committee’s home city of Lausanne.
“The court considered, however, that the Federal Supreme Court’s review had fallen short of that requirement,” the ruling said.
In dismissing other elements of the South African runner’s case, the court said she “did not fall within Switzerland’s jurisdiction in respect of those complaints.”
The original case between Semenya and track’s governing body centers on whether athletes like her, who have specific medical conditions, a typical male chromosome pattern and naturally high testosterone levels, should be allowed to compete freely in women’s sports.
World Athletics, led by its president Sebastian Coe, says its rules maintain fairness because Semenya has an unfair, male-like athletic advantage from her higher testosterone. Semenya argues her testosterone is a genetic gift.
Thursday’s ruling follows a legal victory from the same court two years ago for Semenya.
That judgment, which said she had faced discrimination, opened the way for the Swiss Supreme Court to reconsider its decision to dismiss her appeal against the CAS verdict in favor of World Athletics.
At the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2019, three judges ruled 2-1 that discrimination against Semenya was “necessary, reasonable and proportionate” to maintain fairness in women’s track events.
