S.African Olympic champion Semenya asks for funds for legal fight

EUGENE, OREGON – JULY 20: Caster Semenya of Team South Africa competes in the Women’s 5000m heats on day six of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 20, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. Patrick Smith/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by Patrick Smith / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

Double Olympic champion Caster Semenya on Friday appealed for funds for her legal battle against regulations requiring female athletes with high testosterone to take medication as she prepares for a May hearing at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The 33-year-old South African athlete won a long legal battle last July against Switzerland at the ECHR, which ruled she was the victim of discrimination from the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.

But Swiss authorities, supported by World Athletics, have taken the matter to the ECHR’s Grand Chamber, whose rulings are binding, with hearings slated to start on May 15.

“We lack funds. We have a lot of experts that come in that we need to pay,” Caster told a press conference in Johannesburg.

“Anything that you may contribute, it makes a huge difference.”

Semenya, who is classed as having “differences in sexual development (DSD)” but has always been legally identified as female, has refused to take drugs to reduce her testosterone levels since track and field’s governing body World Athletics introduced the original rules in 2018.

As a result, the Olympic 800m champion in 2012 and 2016 and world gold medallist in 2009, 2011 and 2017, has been barred from competing at her favoured two-lap distance and was forced to make an unsuccessful move up to 5,000m.

The ruling by the ECHR last July was largely symbolic as it does not call into question the World Athletics