Europe court says athlete Semenya's trial wasn't fair in gender testing case

STRASBOURG: A top European court on Thursday (Jul 10) said a Swiss court did not give double Olympic champion Caster Semenya a fair trial in a much-awaited appeals ruling over contested gender testing.

The European Court of Human Rights' decision comes after a row engulfed the 2024 Paris Olympics over the gender of an Algerian boxing champion.

Semenya, a 34-year-old South African runner, is classed as having "differences in sexual development", but has always been legally identified as female.

She has been unable to compete in her favoured 800m category since 2018, after she refused to take drugs to reduce her testosterone levels under new rules from World Athletics, the governing body for track and field.

Semenya told journalists the ECHR's decision was a "positive outcome".

"We need to respect athletes, we need to put their rights first," said the athlete, who was the Olympic 800m champion in 2012 and 2016 and world gold medallist in 2009, 2011 and 2017.

"It's just a reminder to the leaders to say priorities lie on the protection of athletes."

Semenya has embarked on a long legal marathon to contest the World Athletics rules.

The Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against her in 2019 and the decision was validated by the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne in 2020.

It judged that a testosterone level comparable to that of men gave female athletes "an insurmountable advantage".

The ECHR found that the case had required a "rigorous judicial review that was commensurate with the seriousness of the personal rights at issue", but the Swiss federal court's review had "fallen short of that requirement".

It ruled that, as such, Semenya "had not benefitted from the safeguards provided for" in the European Convention on Human