Caster Semenya ends legal battle over track's sex eligibility rules - ESPN

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya is ending a seven-year legal challenge against sex eligibility rules in track and field, her lawyers said Thursday, despite winning a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights in July that appeared to have reignited one of sports' most contentious cases.

Patrick Bracher, a lawyer for Semenya, said in an email to The Associated Press that they wouldn't take her appeal back to the Swiss supreme court, which was an option and what many presumed to be Semenya's next step after the European rights court ruling.

«Caster's legal challenge reached the highest possible court with a highly successful outcome and will not be taken further in the circumstances,» Bracher wrote.

Semenya is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 800 meters from South Africa who has been banned from running in her favorite race at major international meets such as the Olympics and world championships since 2019 because she refused to follow rules that stipulate she take medication to artificially reduce her hormone levels.

Since 2018, she has taken her legal battle against the rules enforced by track governing body World Athletics to three courts; the Switzerland-based highest court for sports, the Swiss Federal Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights.

She has argued that the rules infringed on her rights. She lost her appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and at the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that she hadn't had a fair hearing at the Swiss tribunal and it hadn't properly considered some of the complex arguments. That opened an avenue for her to continue her challenge.

Semenya was the world's dominant