Caster Semenya will have to take testosterone suppressants if she is to continue as a middledistance athlete after she today lost her case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The South African two-times Olympic 800metres champion brought the case after athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, introduced rules last year in a bid to bring down naturally high testosterone levels of athletes with differences in sex development (DSD).
The rules affect only athletes with DSD competing in distances from 400m up to the mile. Semenya’s lawyers argued the rules were a violation of human
rights and gave rise to potential health risks. The 28-year-old had said: “I just want to run naturally the way I was born. I am a woman, and I am fast.”
IAAF president Sebastian Coe, meanwhile, insisted the governing body had merely been trying to “create a level playing field in female sport”.
Despite today’s ruling, it is unlikely the argument around Semenya and DSD athletes will go away, while the South African could opt against taking the suppressants and instead focus on the 5,000m.
