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The lengthy stand-off between Olympic champion Caster Semenya and track and field's governing body over issues of gender, hormones and athletic performance has reached a pivotal phase as a key tribunal begins a planned five-day hearing in a case that could have huge ramifications for sport.
Key points:
- The Court of Arbitration for Sport is hearing an appeal against new athletics rules over athletes with hyperandrogenism
- Hyperandrogenism is a condition in which women may have excess levels of male hormones like testosterone
- The IAAF's proposed rules could force runners like Caster Semenya to take daily medication or move to long-distance races
The two-time 800-metre gold medallist from South Africa came and went from the offices of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) without addressing reporters after a marathon opening session, but her legal team and IAAF lawyers were still jockeying for position in the court of public opinion.
Both sides acknowledged the ruling in the case, which is not expected until late March, could have huge implications, notably over where to draw the line between the genders and how to ensure fairness in top-tier competition.
Semenya's lawyers issued a statement during the 10-hour session criticising the IAAF's release of a list of names of five experts that they planned to put forward to make their case.
Her legal team said that manoeuvre violated the spirit of confidentiality over the proceedings "in an effort to influence public opinion".
Her team of four lawyers said it had received the three-judge panel's OK to release the names of its own experts on Tuesday.
Insisting on the need for fairness, the IAAF defended "eligibility standards that ensure that athletes who identify as female but have testes, and testosterone levels in the male range, at least drop their testosterone levels into the female range in order to compete at the elite level in the female classification".
The IAAF has proposed eligibility rules for athletes with hyperandrogenism, a medical condition in which women may have excessive levels of male hormones such as testosterone. Semenya wants to overturn those rules.
The scheduled five-day appeal case is among the longest ever heard by the sports court.
Neither of the delegations spoke on the way out of Monday's proceedings.
"The core value for the IAAF is the empowerment of girls and women through athletics," IAAF president Sebastian Coe said as the day began.
"The regulations that we are introducing are there to protect the sanctity of fair and open competition."
A colleague then pulled Coe away from reporters and said he wouldn't say more.
This is about more than sport: South African minister
The IAAF wants to require women with naturally elevated testosterone to lower their levels by medication before being allowed to compete in world-class races from 400 metres to one mile.
Under the proposed eligibility rules Semenya, a double Olympic and triple world champion over 800m who won the 800m and 1,500m titles at last year's Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, would have to take daily medication or shift distances to run for South Africa over 5,000m.
Days before the hearing, the South African minister for sport and recreation, Tokozile Xasa, released a statement critical of the proposed regulations.
"What's at stake here is far more than the right to participate in a sport," Xasa said.
"Women's bodies, their wellbeing, their ability to earn a livelihood, their very identity, their privacy and sense of safety and belonging in this world, are being questioned.
"This is a gross violation of internationally accepted standards of human rights law."
AP/ABC
Topics: sport, athletics, switzerland, south-africa
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