CNN | Caster Semenya, the South African Olympic champion runner, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to end "discriminatory" testosterone limits imposed on female athletes.
Semenya
is hyperandrogenous -- meaning she has naturally high levels of the
male sex hormone -- and is fighting against new rules introduced in 2019
by track and field's governing body World Athletics (previously known
as the IAAF) that regulate levels of the hormone in female athletes.
This fight is not just about me, it's about taking a stand and fighting for dignity, equality and the human rights of women in sport. All we ask is to be able to run free as the strong and fearless women we are!! Thank you to all of those who have stood behind me✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/0PdBiujH8b
— Caster Semenya (@caster800m) February 25, 2021
World Athletics said the rules were about "leveling the playing field" because, it said, testosterone "provides significant performance advantages in female athletes."
Semenya
took the 800 meters gold at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics but the rules
mean she will now need to take testosterone-reducing medication in order
to compete internationally over distances between 400 meters and one mile -- something she has declined to do.
She is now training to qualify for the 200 meters at the postponed Tokyo Olympics, which will take place later this year.
In
April 2019, Semenya lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for
Sport. In September 2020, she lost an appeal made to Switzerland's
Federal Supreme Court but vowed to continue to "fight for the human
rights of female athletes."
The
latest appeal, to the European Court of Human Rights, was announced
Thursday in a press release from Semenya's lawyers, Norton Rose
Fulbright.
The
press release calls on the court to find that, in its dismissal of
Semenya's appeal, Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court "failed" in its
obligations to uphold her human rights.
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