South African runner Caster Semenya wins partial victory in appeal against ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya has won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights in her seven-year legal fight against track and field’s sex eligibility rules.
The court’s 17-judge highest chamber said in a 15-2 ruling on Thursday that Semenya had some of her rights to a fair hearing violated before Switzerland’s Supreme Court, where she had appealed against a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It had ruled in favour of track’s international governing body, World Athletics.
Her case should now go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne – and will be watched closely by other sports that have passed or are reviewing their own rules on eligibility in women’s events.
The original case between Semenya and Monaco-based World Athletics was about whether female athletes who have specific medical conditions, a typically male chromosome pattern and naturally high testosterone levels should be allowed to compete freely in women’s sports.
Europe’s top human rights court in Strasbourg, France, dismissed other aspects of the appeal filed by Semenya, who was …
