The verdict is a slap in the face for the associations and their sports arbitration board CAS

According to the judges in Strasbourg, Semenya was only allowed to go to the CAS as an athlete. Image: AFP

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in favor of South African Olympic champion Caster Semenya. The verdict is a slap in the face for the associations and their sports arbitration board CAS.

In May 2019, the International Athletics Federation, now World Athletics, was certain: Caster Semenya would have to swallow. The International Court of Arbitration for Sports CAS in Lausanne had confirmed the rule according to which the two-time Olympic champion over 800 meters from South Africa would have to lower her testosterone level, which is naturally increased by virilized inner testicles during puberty, with medication if she wanted to continue on the compete in middle distances.

Frank Ulrich Montgomery, then chairman of the board of the World Medical Association, recommended to his professional colleagues that they oppose the association and not engage in the “reverse doping” of women with a 46-XY-dsd disposition like Caster Semenya. On the same day, May 9, 2019, World Athletics responded to allegations that its regulations violated Semenya’s human rights: “Human rights is a collective term.”