Caster Semenya Claims Victory Lap Against Unfair Court Ruling
South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya has secured a critical legal victory in one of sport’s most contentious eligibility battles, as the European Court of Human Rights ruled that she was denied a fair hearing in Switzerland. In a decisive 15–2 judgment, the court found that the Swiss Supreme Court failed to properly scrutinize her appeal challenging World Athletics’ regulations, which require athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) to lower their natural testosterone levels in order to compete in certain women’s events.
The ruling is a significant rebuke of how the legal system treated Semenya’s case. It concluded that Switzerland breached her right to a fair trial by effectively endorsing regulations without subjecting them to meaningful judicial review. The ECHR awarded her €80,000 (that’s around 1.6 million in South African money) in legal costs, underscoring the seriousness of the failure.
Caster Semenya | SUPPLIED
Importantly, the court did not strike down World Athletics’ testosterone rules themselves. Those regulations remain in force, continuing to bar Semenya and other DSD athletes from competing in distances from 400 m to 1500 m unless they agree to undergo medical intervention. World Athletics has defended these requirements as essential to ensuring fair competition in women’s sport, despite longstanding criticism that they are invasive and discriminatory.
For Semenya, this decision represents vindication of her broader argument: that no athlete should be forced to alter their body simply to participate in sport, and that such life-altering policies must be open to rigorous legal challenge. At 34, she has largely moved into coaching and advocacy, but her fight has evolved from a personal battle for medals into a larger demand for the rights and dignity of athletes everywhere.
Caster Semenya | SUPPLIED
This ruling does not end the legal struggle. Instead, it compels Swiss courts to conduct a more thorough review of her claims, with the possibility of eventually revisiting the legal basis for the testosterone rules themselves. It also sets a precedent that sporting regulations cannot be insulated from human rights standards, challenging sports bodies to ensure that their rules withstand not only competitive arguments about fairness but also legal and ethical scrutiny.
While it may not immediately return Semenya to the track, the judgment is a stark reminder that the pursuit of fairness in sport cannot come at the cost of fundamental rights. Her case has forced the world of athletics to confront uncomfortable questions about gender, science, and justice—and this latest decision ensures those questions cannot simply be ignored.