Still a long road for Semenya despite winning discrimination ruling

CAPE TOWN : Double Olympic 800 metres champion Caster Semenya has taken a potentially small step towards competing at Paris 2024 but there is a long way to go in her battle against World Athletics regulations that have kept her largely idle for four years.

South African Semenya, an athlete with differences in sexual development (DSDs), has been involved in a legal battle over regulations that prohibit her from running unless she medically lowers her natural testosterone levels.

The 32-year-old middle-distance runner first took her fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), sport's highest court, and later the Swiss Federal Tribunal (SFT).

Semenya lost both cases, although when CAS ruled against her four years ago it accepted that it meant she was being discriminated against but its judges ruled 2-1 that "such discrimination is a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of achieving World Athletics' aim of preserving the integrity of female athletics in the Restricted Events".

However, Tuesday's judgement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), delivered in her favour by a slender margin of four to three, states that she was in fact discriminated against by the SFT, who did not consider respect for her private life and the right to an effective remedy.

It does not set aside the World Athletics regulations and will likely be challenged by the Swiss Government during a three-month period following the judgement when it is non-binding and open to review, which could be a long process.

In fact, Semenya's path back to competition remains arguably as tough as it was before Tuesday's judgement - a moral victory, but not one that moves her significantly closer to the Olympics.

That being said, Seema Patel, Associate