AP – Double Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won an appeal against track and field’s testosterone rules yesterday when the European Court of Human Rights ruled she had been discriminated against.
The ruling could force sport’s highest court to re-examine the regulations that force Semenya and other female athletes to artificially reduce naturally high testosterone levels to compete at top meets such as the Olympics and world champinships.
The Strasbourg-based rights court ruled in Semenya’s favour by a 4-3 majority of judges.
The court also ruled the South African runner was denied an “effective remedy” against that discrimination when the Court of Arbitration for Sport and Switzerland’s supreme court denied her two previous appeals against the rules.
It was not immediately clear if the ruling would force an immediate rollback of the rules and if the 32-year-old would be allowed to compete at next year’s Olympics.
