Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday 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 vote that Semenya had some of her rights to a fair hearing violated at Switzerland's Supreme Court, where she had appealed against a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in favor of track's World Athletics. Her case will now go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne, reports the AP—and will be watched closely by other sports which have passed or are reviewing their own rules on eligibility in women's events.
The original case between Semenya and track's governing body was about whether athletes like her—who have a typical male chromosome pattern and naturally high testosterone levels—should be allowed to compete in women's sports. Europe's top human rights court in Strasbourg, France, dismissed other aspects of the appeal filed by Semenya, who was in court Thursday to hear the judgment. It awarded her $94,000 "in respect of costs and expenses." The European court's ruling does not overturn the World Athletics rules that effectively ended Semenya's career running the 800 meters after she won two Olympic and three world titles since emerging on the global stage as a teenager in 2009.
The key legal point in Semenya's win was the Swiss Federal Court had not carried out a
"rigorous judicial review" that was required because Semenya had no choice but to pursue her case through the CAS' "mandatory and exclusive jurisdiction," the Strasbourg judges ruled. In dismissing other elements of her case, the court judged she "did not fall within Switzerland's jurisdiction in respect of those complaints." World Athletics, led by its president Sebastian Coe, has said its rules maintain fairness because Semenya has an unfair, male-like athletic advantage. Semenya argues her testosterone is a genetic gift.
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