<
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jul/11/caster-semenya-discriminated-against-by-testosterone-levels-rules-echr>
"The extraordinary career of Caster Semenya took another twist on Tuesday when
the European court of human rights (ECHR) ruled she had been let down by the
Swiss legal system in her battle against limits on testosterone levels for
female athletes.
Semenya, who won gold in the 800m at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, was born with
differences in sex development (DSD), meaning her body naturally produces
higher levels of testosterone than women without the condition. She has not
been allowed to compete in elite events between 400m and a mile since 2018,
when World Athletics, the sport’s governing body, implemented a new policy for
DSD athletes that compelled them to reduce their testosterone levels to less
than 5 nmol/L in order to race across those distances. DSDs are in the male
range of 7.7-29.4 nmol/L.
The policy was upheld by the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) the following
year, and then by a Swiss federal tribunal in 2020, leading to the 32-year-old
South African taking her long-running legal battle against the regulations to
the ECHR.
The ECHR ruled on Tuesday that Switzerland had not afforded Semenya “sufficient
institutional and procedural safeguards” to allow her to have her complaints
examined effectively. The “high stakes” involved for Semenya “should have led
to a thorough institutional and procedural review”, the court said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
