Semenya to miss 800-meter event at world championships after court ruling
Olympic runner and gold medalist Caster Semenya is ineligible to compete in her preferred distance at the 2019 world track and field championships after a Swiss judge reversed a previous ruling that suspended controversial regulations on testosterone levels.
The new ruling means the 28-year-old, an accomplished athlete with differences in sexual development (DSD), is barred from competing in races between 400 meters and one mile.
"I am very disappointed to be kept from defending my hard-earned title," Semenya said in a statement obtained by The New York Times, "but this will not deter me from continuing my fight for the human rights of all the female athletes concerned."
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) drafted new rules that prevent women with an X and Y chromosome from participating in middle-distance events unless they take hormone suppressants.
Semenya refused to undergo treatment, contending the rules are discriminatory.
"I am a woman and I am a world-class athlete," Semenya said earlier this year. "The IAAF will not drug me or stop me from being who I am."
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in May that the IAAF has grounds to regulate female participants with naturally high testosterone levels, but a Swiss federal court later suspended the initial ruling.
That all changed on Tuesday. The Swiss Federal Tribunal "emphasized the strict requirements and high thresholds for the interim suspension of CAS awards and found that these were not fulfilled," it said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Semenya, who was born in South Africa, won the 800 meters at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and gold at the last world championships in 2017.