GENEVA — Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights on Thursday in her seven-year legal fight against track and field's sex eligibility rules.
The court's 17-judge highest chamber said in a 15-2 vote that Semenya had some of her rights to a fair hearing violated at Switzerland's Supreme Court, where she had appealed against a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in favor of track's World Athletics.
However, the court declined to rule on several other aspects of Semenya's case, including on the question of whether she was discriminated against in Swiss courts. The European court in Strasbourg, France, said those issues were outside Switzerland's jurisdiction, although four of the 17 judges gave a partial dissent to the majority view.
Semenya's case should now go back to the Swiss federal court in Lausanne. It will be watched closely by other sports which have passed or are reviewing their own rules on eligibility in women's events.
Semenya later posted on social media a photo of herself in the court chamber with a message a three raised fists symbolizing her fight for justice.
''Today, my patience in this journey has been rewarded with a result that will pave the way for all athletes' human rights to be protected,'' she said in a statement.
The original case between Semenya and track's governing body based in Monaco was about whether athletes like her — who have specific medical conditions, a typical male chromosome pattern and naturally high testosterone levels — should be allowed to compete freely in women's sports.
The European court's ruling does not overturn the World Athletics rules that effectively ended Semenya's career running the 800 meters after she won two Olympic and three world titles since emerging on the global stage as a teenager in 2009.