Semenya has been barred by the rules from running in her favorite 800-meter race since 2019 because she has refused to artificially suppress her testosterone. In her second appeal, the Swiss supreme court had failed to respond to “serious concerns” of discrimination, the European rights court said. In a 4-3 ruling by a panel of judges, the Strasbourg, France-based human rights court said “serious questions” over the “validity” of the international athletics regulations were “left open” in Semenya's previous challenge at sports court CAS. The South African athlete's legal challenge has taken five years so far and it could take equally as long for the process of rolling back the cases through the different courts. Next month's world championships, where she has won three titles, are almost certainly not an option. It's unlikely she'd be able to go for another gold in the 800 meters at next year’s Olympics in Paris.

While the 32-year-old Semenya is fighting to be allowed to run again without restrictions, that might still take years, if it happens at all. The ruling didn’t strike down the rules and the world track and field body said soon after it was released that the contentious testosterone regulations would “remain in place.” Champion runner Caster Semenya won a potentially landmark legal decision for sports on Tuesday when the European Court of Human Rights decided she was discriminated against by rules in track and field that force her to medically reduce her natural hormone levels to compete in major competitions.īut the two-time Olympic champion’s success after her two failed appeals in sports’ highest court in 2019 and the Swiss supreme court in 2020 came with a major caveat.

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