Portrait
Caster Semenya
Born
7 January 1991Ga-Masehlong, Limpopo, South Africa
Middle-distance runnerSouth Africa35th birthday

Caster Semenya

The Olympic 800-metre champion challenged eligibility rules that required her to alter her natural hormone levels.

Caster Semenya was born in Ga-Masehlong, South Africa, in 1991. At eighteen she won the 800 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin. Her achievement was quickly overshadowed by sex testing and intense public scrutiny of her body.

She went on to win Olympic gold in 2012 and 2016 and three world titles over 800 metres. Semenya has differences of sex development associated with naturally high testosterone levels. Rules introduced by the international athletics federation in 2018 required affected athletes to lower those levels to compete in specified women’s events.

Semenya challenged the rules through the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Swiss courts. In July 2025 the European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber found that Switzerland had violated her right to a fair hearing. The judgment concerned the scrutiny provided by the Swiss court; it did not itself overturn the sporting regulations or grant her eligibility to race.

Openly lesbian and married to Violet Raseboya, Semenya has also spoken about the personal costs of the dispute. Her case brings questions of sporting classification into direct conflict with privacy, bodily autonomy and equal treatment.

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