Caster Semenya shouldn’t be able to compete in women’s events

Who can compete in women’s sports? This week’s decision by the European Court of Human Rights further complicates the debate. Judges in Strasbourg upheld Caster Semenya’s appeal against World Athletics regulations that requited athletes like Semenya to lower their testosterone levels to be allowed to compete with women. The court ruled that those regulations were ‘a source of discrimination’ for Semenya ‘by the manner in which they were exercised and by their effects’, and the regulations were ‘incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights’. 

Let’s be clear, while sports’ governing bodies operate the most stringent of anti-doping measures, it was a bizarre decision to impose a compulsory doping regime on Caster Semenya and other athletes with certain intersex conditions. The drugs used to lower blood testosterone levels are powerful and life changing.  Nobody – in my view – should be required to take drugs to run in a race. 

That does not mean that I think Caster Semenya should be eligible for women’s sports.