GENEVA (AP) — Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday in her seven-year legal fight against track and field’s sex eligibility rules.
The court’s 17-judge highest chamber said in a 15-2 vote that Semenya had some of her rights to a fair hearing violated at Switzerland’s Supreme Court, where she had appealed against a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in favour of World Athletics.
However, on the question of Semenya being discriminated against in Swiss courts, the European court in Strasbourg, France, did not pronounce — to the frustration of four of the 17 judges in a partial dissent to the majority view.
Her case should now go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne.
It will be watched closely by other sports that have passed or are reviewing their own rules on eligibility in women’s events.
Semenya later posted on social media a photo of herself in the court chamber with a message a three raised fists symbolizing her fight for justice.
The original case between Semenya and the track’s governing body based in Monaco was about whether athletes like her — 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.
Europe’s top human rights court did not take up other aspects of the appeal filed by Semenya, who was in court Thursday to hear the judgment read. It awarded her 80,000 euros ($94,000) from the state of Switzerland “in respect of costs and expenses.”
The European court’s ruling does not overturn the World Athletics rules that effectively ended Semenya’s career running the 800 meters after she won two Olympic and three world titles since emerging on the global stage as a teenager in 2009.