One of the most complex issues currently facing sports dates back to a 2009 track and field meet in Germany, where an unknown 18-year-old South African woman swept through a field of the world’s best runners to win the world title. The teenager was barely out of breath when she tensed her muscles at the end of the race.
What quickly became clear was that the sport faced an unprecedented dilemma with the arrival of Caster Semenya.
Two-time Olympic and three-time world 800m champion Caster Semenya, 34, was banned from competing in her favourite event from 2019 under a set of rules drawn up by athletics authorities due to her dominance.
They claim that her natural testosterone level is much higher than that of a typical woman and that it must be medically reduced so that she can compete fairly with other women.
Caster Semenya refused to artificially alter her hormones and challenged the rules on grounds of discrimination before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, then the Swiss Supreme Court, and now the European Court of Human Rights.
A ruling handed down Thursday by the European Court’s highest chamber – Caster Semenya’s last legal challenge after losing the other two – concluded that she had not received a fair trial before the Swiss Supreme Court.
The decision kept Semenya’s case alive and reignited a years-long battle over individual rights and the perception of fairness in sport, with implications for the entire sporting world.
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