Caster Semenya has lost her landmark legal case against athletics’ governing body, the IAAF, earlier this week. The verdict was announced by the court of arbitration for sport (CAS) on yesterday, after three arbitrators had spent over two months deliberating over the controversial case.
The court further found that the South African 800m Olympic champion will have to take medication to significantly reduce her testosterone if she wants to run internationally at events between 400m and a mile.
According to the Guardian, Semenya, who has not been beaten over 800m since 2015, is considering to appeal the matter. “I know that the IAAF’s regulations have always targeted me specifically,” she is quoted as saying.
“For a decade the IAAF has tried to slow me down, but this has actually made me stronger. The decision of the CAS will not hold me back. I will once again rise above and continue to inspire young women and athletes in South Africa and around the world.”
Sports scientist Ross Tucker, who was part of Semenya’s team of experts at CAS, has revealed that the South African could, as a result of the ruling, run the 800m in around seven seconds slower. Alternatively, she may decide to pursue the 5000m, where the IAAF’s new rules regarding athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) do not apply.
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