More than five years later, his first victory in court. The battle of Caster Semenya To run her test again, the 800 meters, where she was a two-time Olympic champion and a three-time world champion, she experienced a twist on Tuesday. Perhaps an insignificant one, perhaps a decisive one. She will have to wait.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in favor of the South African, concluding that she could have suffered “sex discrimination” when the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) denied her participation in certain distances for being intersex and having certain levels of elevated testosterone. The Strasbourg court ruled against Switzerland, the country that hosts the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAD) and its Supreme Court, the other bodies to which Semenya had previously resorted, for not having offered the athlete “deep institutional and procedural control ” of your case.
In fact, although the South African had not requested financial compensation, Switzerland must pay her 60,000 euros in cost for not giving her sufficient protection. After several lost appeals, Semenya thus received the first judicial push to fight him. Does it mean that he can run again? Absolutely.
The Strasbourg sentence simply returns the case of the South African to the starting box. According to the ECHR, the first instances to which Semenya turned did not consider “the significant risks of the case for the plaintiff” and now they must reassess her file. It is possible that, the second time, they will rule in favor of the athlete, that she can compete without undergoing the hormonal treatment required by the IAAF, but even then it could be too late for her.
At 32 years old, Semenya has spent several seasons focused on her judicial fight and away from the elite of athletics. The IAAF regulations separated him from three distances, the 400, the 800 and the 1,500 meters, and although she tried it in the 200 and the 5,000 meters, in none of those specialties he found a place. In the 5,000 meters, she earned a place in Eugene’s last World Championship in the playoffs, but she was eliminated in the previous round. Of the 16 participants in her heat she finished thirteenth. She was only there to keep her case alive.