Intersex world champion runner wins appeal over testosterone levels | DW News

Europe’s highest human rights court has ruled in favor of double Olympic 800-meter champion Caster Semenya, finding that courts in Switzerland should allow the South African runner to challenge regulations that oblige female athletes with naturally high testosterone levels to take drugs to lower them. Semenya, 32, took her case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg after losing an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which had ruled in 2019 that World Athletics’ regulations on testosterone levels were necessary for fair female competition. Semenya, a three-time 800 meters world champion who also won gold in the event at the 2016 Olympics, has a medical condition known as hyperandrogenism which is characterized by above-average levels of testosterone, a hormone which increases muscle mass, strength, and endurance, and which is found in greater quantities in male bodies. Subscribe: