Caster Semenya: A rebel with a cause

JOHANNESBURG – When 18-year-old unknown South African Caster Semenya pulled off a stunning 800 metres triumph at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, she could never have imagined the drama that would follow.

On July 10, the latest chapter in

a long-running court saga

came to an end when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said a Swiss court did not give her a fair trial in a much-awaited appeals ruling over contested gender testing.

Although she declared it a “positive outcome”, she added that she would continue to demand dignity and respect for athletes.

“The fight will never be over,” she said. “As long as we have injustice, we fight till the court.”

She had barely touched the tape to claim gold in the German capital 16 years ago when controversy erupted over whether she should have been allowed to compete.

Some rivals questioned whether she was a woman.

Officials reacted by forcing her to have a sex test, and it was not until the following year that the woman born in a northern village could run again.

Recalling the sex test to a London audience, Semenya said “being told you are not woman enough can be disturbing”.

Now 34, Semenya was born with differences in sexual development (DSD) and some opponents believed her biological make-up gave her an unfair advantage.

Later, when she refused to take drugs to supress testosterone, a hormone that increases muscle mass, strength and endurance-enhancing haemoglobin, she was banned by World Athletics.

She collected 800m golds at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games in London and Rio de Janeiro – the first after Russian winner Mariya Savinova was belatedly disqualified over doping.

After Berlin, Semenya also struck gold over her favourite distance at world championships in South Korean city Daegu in 2011 and London in 2017.

But instead of basking in the glory of becoming a middle-distance track queen, she became embroiled in a string of legal battles just to compete.

Previously, when Semenya took testosterone-reducing medication, the athlete told the South African media she suffered “hell”.

“When you are desperate (to run), you will do anything to get what you want. The medication was not designed for my body because I am different,” she said.

“I am a woman who is different, I do not have a uterus, I do not have fallopian tubes. I was never happy (taking the medication), it irritated me, I was not myself.”

As the years passed, relentless Semenya exchanged her “golden girl” status among South Africans and became a rebel with a cause.

Her frustration heightened when an initial World Athletics ban covering middle-distance races extended to all track events.

She labelled the move a “gross violation of human rights. What is at stake here is far more than the right to participate in a sport.

“Women’s bodies, their well-being, their ability to earn a livelihood, their very identity, their sense of safety and belonging in the world are being questioned.”

But while Semenya railed against World Athletics, it refused to budge, and she missed the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“DSD regulations are a necessary, reasonable and proportionate means of protecting fair competition in the female category,” said the global governing body.

Taking the legal route to try and overturn the ban, Semenya lost cases at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the Swiss Federal Tribunal (SFT).

In July 2023, the ECHR took a different view, though, by a 4-3 majority. It said Semenya’s appeal had not been properly heard.

SFT, supported by World Athletics, appealed against the decision, leading to a two-year wait before the 17-judge ECHR Grand Chamber gave its ruling.

The ECHR found the case had required a “rigorous judicial review that was commensurate with the seriousness of the personal rights at issue”, but the Swiss federal court’s review had “fallen short of that requirement”.

While several South African athletes approached by AFP over the issue did not wish to comment, the government and the public have backed Semenya in her crusade against “injustice”.

“Our entire history of South Africa has been a struggle for human rights. These (World Athletics) rules have had a negative effect on our golden girl,” said then sports minister Tokozile Xasa in 2019.

As Semenya suffered setbacks, she could rely on the support of her parents, three sisters and one brother. “The relationship I have with my family is special,” she said. AFP