A ruling this week in the Caster Semenya case could reignite the issue of sex eligibility in sports

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) – A ruling expected this week by the highest chamber of the European Court of Human Rights could reignite champion runner Caster Semenya’s yearslong legal battle against sports authorities over sex eligibility rules that banned her and other women from top events including the Olympics and world championships.

If a panel of judges upholds a 2023 decision by the same court in Semenya’s favor, it would put renewed scrutiny on track and field’s rules requiring some female athletes to suppress their natural testosterone levels in order to compete – and open a legal avenue for the regulations to be struck down.

That would have implications across sports and further inflame a larger issue that has been politicized by U.S. President Donald Trump and others with claims that the future of women’s competition is at stake. Track’s regulations have become a blueprint for other sports when dealing with athletes like two-time Olympic champion Semenya, who present the most complex dilemma for sports administrators when determining sex eligibility.

The case is about whether athletes like Semenya, who have specific medical conditions, a typical male chromosome pattern and naturally high testosterone levels, should be allowed to compete freely in women’s sports.

Track authorities say the rules are necessary to maintain fairness because Semenya has an unfair, male-like athletic advantage from her higher testosterone. Semenya argues her testosterone is a genetic gift.

The European court’s Grand Chamber – where 17 judges rule on the most important and difficult cases – said it will on Thursday deliver a verdict that’s been deliberated on for nearly two years. The judges will decide whether to uphold a ruling from two years ago that the South African may have been discriminated against and prevented from practicing her profession by the regulations.

Semenya refused to take medication to lower her natural testosterone level, and the regulations effectively ended her career.

Another victory for Semenya at the human rights court would not immediately result in the rules being removed, but would keep her legal challenge alive. If the Grand Chamber rules against Semenya, it would most likely be the end of her case as its decisions cannot be appealed.

Semenya’s career has been a firestorm of controversy since she arrived in international track as an unknown teenager in 2009 and won the world title in the 800 meters. She was immediately subjected to sex tests.

Semenya is not transgender and her case has often been misconstrued. She was assigned female at birth, raised as a girl and has always identified as female. But she has one of a number of conditions which are known as differences of sex development, or DSDs, and which lead to testosterone levels that are higher than the typical female range.

An assertion by track’s governing body, World Athletics, that Semenya is “biologically male” enraged her.

World Athletics drew up rules in 2018 forcing Semenya and other female athletes with DSDs to suppress their testosterone to be eligible for international women’s events.

Semenya challenged the rules in court and lost at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland in 2019. She also lost an appeal against that decision at the Swiss supreme court in 2020. Her 2023 appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France was her first major legal victory.

It found that the regulations did – on the face of it – violate her rights and “serious questions” over the rules hadn’t been dealt with, like what effects using birth control medication to suppress hormone levels had on athletes.

Should the panel of top judges agree on Thursday, Semenya’s case would go back to the Swiss supreme court and possibly all the way back to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, though that would still likely take years.

The direction of Semenya’s case could ultimately have repercussions for other high-profile Olympic sports such as swimming, which also has rules barring female athletes with high natural testosterone. Those rules were introduced in the wake of the World Athletics regulations.

Soccer is reviewing its eligibility rules for women and could set limits on testosterone. Track has strengthened its rules since 2019.

Female eligibility is a burning issue for the International Olympic Committee under its new president, Kirsty Coventry. The IOC has allowed individual sports federations to set their own rules at the Olympics.

Coventry, however, has said the IOC should now lead on the issue, echoing the clear view of most her opponents in the March presidential election that she won.

A sex eligibility controversy involving female boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan raged at last year’s Paris Olympics, undermining the competition.

Boxing, in response, has announced it will have new sex eligibility testing.

Semenya’s case might set a legal precedent for all sports because there has never been one like it.

Semenya last competed internationally in 2019 and was the world’s dominant runner in her favorite 800-meter event. She’d won more than 30 consecutive races when the rules made her ineligible.

She is now 34 and has moved into coaching. She said recently her ongoing legal fight is no longer about her own running career, which is likely over, but about a principle.

“It’s a battle for human rights now,” Semenya told a South African newspaper last month. “It’s not about competing, it’s about putting athletes’ rights first. It’s about the protection of athletes.”