Caster Semenya must alter her hormone levels to compete as a woman after LOSING appeal against IAAF’s testosterone-lowering plans
South African double Olympic champion is hyperandrogenic and challenged new regulations ordering her and similar athletes to lower testosterone levels to compete as women
SOUTH AFRICA'S double Olympic champion Caster Semenya has lost her key case against world athletics chiefs.
The ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport means Semenya may have to take drugs to lower her testosterone level if she wants to compete in middle distance events.
But in a ruling that was mixed news for the International Association of Athletics Federations, Cas conceded the regulations might not be sustained and could be put on hold pending more detailed scientific research.
And it seems certain that Semenya will appeal the findings, potentially opening the way for her to compete at this year’s world championships in Doha.
Semenya, 28, has been the world’s most controversial female athlete since it was first revealed she was subjected to gender testing in 2009.
While the results were never made public, it is understood that Semenya, who burst onto the scene when she won the first of her three world crowns in that year, has both male and female characteristics.
Despite the findings, Semenya continued to compete, retaining her world title in 2011, winning Olympic gold at London 2012, winning again in Rio four years later and recapturing the world title back in London two years ago.
DISCRIMINATORY
But Semenya found herself involved in a legal case when the IAAF brought in new rules demanding runners “with differences of sexual development” lower their testosterone levels if they wanted to compete as women in races from 400m to one mile.
IAAF-commissioned research in 2017 found that female athletes with elevated testosterone levels had a competitive advantage of up to three per cent over other runners.
Semenya, backed by South African athletics chiefs, fought the ruling, arguing there was no proof that high testosterone levels was a benefit to “DSD” athletes.
The athlete argued the ruling was “discriminatory, unnecessary, unreliable and disproportionate” and should be “declared invalid and void with immediate effect”.
The case was heard by a three-member legal panel at the Lausanne-based Cas in February but the 165-page findings have now been published.
In their landmark decision - which was a majority verdict with one of the judges backing Semenya’s case - Cas ruled that while the regulations “are discriminatory” but that “such discrimination is necessary, reasonable and proportionate”.
However, the ruling appeared to leave open an appeal and further legal challenge with the panel expressing “serious concerns” over the “future practical application” of the regulations.
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In a statement, Cas revealed: “While the evidence available so far has not established that those concerns negate the conclusion of proportionality, this may change in the future unless constant attention is paid to the fairness of how the regulations are implemented.”
The panel cited worries about testosterone limits, actual proof that Semenya and other DSD athletes actually benefited and the side-effects of hormone treatments.
It said: “The panel suggested that the IAAF consider deferring the application of the DSD regulations until more evidence is available.”