South African athlete Caster Semenya has said the Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS)’s decision to back a “discriminatory” IAAF rule forcing her to take drugs to regulate her natural testosterone levels would not hold her back.
“For a decade, the IAAF (the International Association of Athletics Federations) has tried to slow me down but this has actually made me stronger. And the decision of the CAS will not hold me back,” she said in a statement released by her legal team on Wednesday.
The double World and Olympic champion went to court to fight the IAAF-imposed rules that compel “hyperandrogenic” athletes like Semenya – or those with “differences of sexual development” (DSD) – to lower their testosterone levels by taking drugs if they wish to compete as women.
The statement said the South African athlete was “pleased” to note that the three judges admitted that the IAAF’s regulations are “discriminatory against certain women.”
But she said she was disappointed that the court went ahead and concluded that the “targeted discrimination” was necessary. “I know that the IAAF’s regulations have always targeted me specifically,” she said.
The statement said Semenya believed that the regulations “will be overturned” but it was not immediately clear if she would appeal the court’s decision.
She has 30 days to appeal the CAS decision, condemned by the UN Human Rights Commission, in a challenge that would be heard at the Swiss Federal Tribunal.
NM/jn/APA