Caster Semenya ends legal battle over sex eligibility in women's track and field

South African track and field Olympian Caster Semenya has ended a seven-year legal challenge against sex eligibility rules in the sport, according to The Associated Press. 

"Caster's legal challenge reached the highest possible court with a highly successful outcome and will not be taken further in the circumstances," the athlete's attorney, Patrick Bracher, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. 

Semenya was born with a difference in sex development (DSD) and was legally identified as female at birth but has a medical condition that leads to some male traits, including increased levels of testosterone. Semenya has said the athlete was born without a uterus and with internal testicles. 

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Semenya had been engaged in a legal battle against the rules enforced by track governing body World Athletics to three courts - the Switzerland-based highest court for sports, the Swiss Federal Tribunal and the European Court of Human Rights.

World Athletics said Semenya and a few other DSD athletes in international track have testosterone levels in the male range, giving them an unfair advantage over other women because of the hormone's connection to muscle mass and cardio-vascular performance. Semenya was the world's dominant middle-distance runner and was unbeaten in more than 30 races when the athlete was barred from women's track and field. 

How much advantage DSD athletes gain from testosterone has been disputed in one of the many details of Semenya's case.

Semenya argued that the rules infringed the athlete's rights, then Semenya lost appeals at the Court of Arbitration for Sport and at the Swiss Federal Tribunal.

However, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in July that Semenya hadn't had a fair hearing at the Swiss tribunal, and it hadn't properly considered some of the complex arguments. That opened an avenue for the athlete to continue the challenge.

World Athletics changed its policy in March 2023, excluding male-to-female transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty from women's competitions, prioritizing "fairness and integrity." 

A presentation at a World Athletics panel in Tokyo last month revealed that 50 to 60 athletes with male biological advantages have been finalists in the female category at global and continental championships since 2000.

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The panel was led by the head of the World Athletics Health and Science Department, Dr. Stéphane Bermon, who said sex tests were necessary because of an "over-representation" of DSD (differences of sex development) athletes among finalists, per multiple reports.

Controversy over the issue in World Athletics arose when Semenya won Olympic gold in the 800 meters at the 2012 and 2016 Games. Then, at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Namibia's Christine Mboma claimed silver in the 200 meters.

Last October, the United Nations said nearly 900 biological females fell short of the podium because they were beaten by trans athletes.

The findings were compiled by Reem Alsalem, the UN's rapporteur on violence against women and titled "Violence against women and girls in sports." 

The report said that more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information obtained as of March 30.

The new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Kirsty Coventry, addressed the topic of transgender athletes competing in women's sports at her first news conference since taking over in June and said there is "overwhelming support" by IOC members to protect the female category. 

"We understand that there'll be differences depending on the sport … but it was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost to ensure fairness," Coventry said. 

"But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area."

The new president added that there is "unanimous" support for coming to an agreement about how to amend the policy and suggested the IOC may take inspiration from the World Athletics policy, which restricts biological males from competing in women's sports if those males have gone through male puberty. 

"It was very clear from the membership the discussion around this has to be done with medical and scientific research at the core, so we are looking at the facts and the nuances and the inclusion of the international federations that have done so much of this work … having a seat at table and sharing with us because every sport is different," she said.

However, Coventry also said any changes likely wouldn't result in retroactively changing the results of past competitions that featured athletes with gender-eligibility questions. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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