Semenya wins appeal against Swiss Federal Tribunal ruling
Semenya is appealing against World Athletics regulations that female athletes with differences in sexual development (DSDs) medically reduce their testosterone levels.
The verdict of the Grand Chamber, part of the European Court of Human Rights, does not set aside these rules.
Under World Athletics rules, female DSD athletes must lower their level of testosterone to below 2.5 nmol/L for at least six months to compete. This can be done medically or surgically.
Semenya, 34, is not seeking a return to the track and has turned to coaching, but says she is carrying on the fight for other DSD athletes, who she says are discriminated against.
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Straits Times
11 hours ago
- Straits Times
‘It's just sport. Nothing more': How Florian Wellbrock, four-gold world champ, revived his career
King of the high seas: Germany's Florian Wellbrock won four golds in the open water during the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. 'Oh my god.' Leaning on a metal barrier, Florian Wellbrock does something unusual for him. He's the poet laureate of endurance swimming, the lean, liquid prince of persistence who can't stop, whose hotel safe must barely close because it's stuffed with world championship golds from the 10km open water, the 5km, the 3km knockout sprints, the mixed 4x1,500m relay and he's not finished yet. The German's life is measured in fractions but right now the seconds are slowly ticking away. He's a silent study in concentration. How do you tell a reporter the madness of your life, the rise, the Olympic gold in 2021, the fall thereafter, the struggles, the pressure so suffocating it 'killed' him at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the revival? So he thinks. For five seconds, 10, 14, the pause dramatic, broken only by the 'oh my god' at the question, and then this man, who always finds things, like his way back to greatness, finds the words. In a unique feat, Wellbrock collects gold in the 10km open water and 1,500m (in the pool) at the 2019 world championships and then gold and bronze in those events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 'At this point,' he says, 'it felt like normal to be on the podium, to win a gold medal, but to be honest it's not normal.' No, it's not. The podium requires a freaky confluence of talent and timing, of skill polished over thousands of kilometres and then unleashed at a precise moment to best an entire planet. 'You need a lot of work,' continues Wellbrock, 'a lot of passion, it's so hard to stay on the top level. It's easy to become a world champion, but to stay on this level is much harder.' He's talking pressure, that sneaky feeling that steals joy from athletes, freezes their joints, warps their perspective. 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And then you have the feeling that you have to win and even if it's silver you are losing because you didn't achieve the gold medal. 'And this is a kind of pressure which is not good for yourself.' Pressure flattens Wellbrock at the 2024 Olympics and he'll tell you this with disarming bluntness. Of the many fascinating parts which comprise the athlete, one is ownership of defeat. If they fumble, they own it. He's 14th in the pool in the 1,500m and eighth in the 10km open water and his verdict is unvarnished. 'I think the pressure killed me in Paris.' Redemption starts with an interrogation. Why am I doing this? What do I want from it? How does it fulfil me? Wellbrock has his own list. 'I was thinking, okay, I put so much work into my sport, is it okay to finish like 12th, 15th, whatever? 'And for me it was clear, it's not okay. Because when I do like 80, 90 kilometres in the water, gym, pour everything to be in the top shape, I want to be one of the top athletes, I want to be on the podium.' Comebacks are born of humility, from an admission that life as it was isn't working, that bodies may have to be resculpted, plans redesigned, philosophies reworked. It's why golfers change equipment and badminton players their coaches and Novak Djokovic his diet. Sometimes all that needs tinkering with is attitude. Wellbrock makes progress after Paris with a mental coach and says 'now I find a way to swim again with fun and not with too much pressure'. It's a process and for some athletes this may involve mantras they recite and journals they write in, something which clarifies their mission and releases pressure, something not necessarily profound but powerful, something as simple as the word Wellbrock now tells himself. 'Relax.' You actually tell yourself 'relax'? 'Yeah. It's just sport. Yeah, nothing more.' Even in this no-frills, no-excuses 27-year-old from Bremen lies the hint of a poet and you can hear it when he talks about open water swimming. 'You float on the water. There's no gravity any more. Especially at home during the morning practice at 7am, early in the morning, it's so bright around you, it's just you and the water, nothing more.' A man in his element. In Singapore he enters the water one last time on Aug 3, in the 1,500m freestyle final, chasing nothing else but his best self on this particular day and not a specific colour of medal. 'At the moment, I don't care. Because I know the feeling, how it is if I win, and I know the feeling how it is when I lose.' He's saying he doesn't care if he comes second. Which may be exactly why in Singapore he has only come first.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Qin Haiyang hails ‘miracle of Lane 8' after winning 200m breaststroke at World Aquatics C'ships
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Qin Haiyang of China celebrates after winning the Men's 200m Breaststroke held at the WCH Arena on Aug 1. SINGAPORE – Having qualified with the slowest time in the men's 200m breaststroke final, there was a huge question mark over Chinese swimmer Qin Haiyang's hopes of a golden double at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) in Singapore. While he had swept all three breaststroke events at the 2023 edition in Fukuoka, where he also set the 200m world record of 2min 5.48sec, he has been struggling for consistency of late. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, he finished seventh in the 100m breast final and could not even reach the 200m final. He won the 100m gold and 50m bronze at the WCH Arena in Singapore, but the Jekyll and Hyde showing continued as he nearly missed the 200m final again, finishing eighth overall in the semi-finals on July 30 in 2:09.32, just 0.28sec clear of the ninth-placed swimmer, Britain's Gregory Butler. As the attention centred on the top qualifiers – Japan's Ippei Watanabe, American A.J. Pouch and Dutchman Caspar Corbeau – in the Aug 1 final, Qin stole the thunder from Lane 8, one of the outermost lanes, as he touched the wall first in 2:07.41. Watanabe was second in 2:07.70, with Corbeau just 0.03sec behind in third. As Qin rose from the water, he raised his arms in triumph while the Chinese fans roared their approval. 'Have you heard of the Lane 8 miracle? You saw it tonight,' he said. 'When I finished, I actually didn't know if I finished first, second or third. I just heard 'wooooo'. 'For me, the gold medal isn't actually the most important thing. Regardless of whether I won the gold medal today or not, what I truly wanted was to achieve a better performance in terms of my results.' While Qin was about two seconds slower than his world record, American Kate Douglass was less than a second from the world mark of 2:17.55 in the women's 200m breaststroke final. The 23-year-old eventually finished in a championship-record 2:18.50, eclipsing the previous mark of 2:19.11 set by Denmark's Rikke Pedersen in 2013. Russian Evgeniia Chikunova, the world record holder who was competing as a neutral athlete, was second in 2:19.96, with South African Kaylene Corbett and Belarusian neutral athlete Alina Zmushka joint third (2:23.52). Douglass said that she was not upset to have missed the world record, adding: 'I think that win was huge, not just for me, but for the whole team. I wanted to just get a gold for Team USA and to help our medal count here.' 'Honestly, I was really happy with that time... I was hoping to get under 2:19 and I was just hoping to really have a good race and hopefully get my hand on the wall first,' she added. Kate Douglass of the US breaking the championship record in the women's 200m breaststroke. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG In the men's 200m backstroke final, Paris Olympic gold medallist Hubert Kos clocked 1:53.19 to reclaim the title that the Hungarian won in Fukuoka, while also breaking the European record. South Africa's Pieter Coetze was second in 1:53.36, with Frenchman Yohann Ndoye-Brouard third (1:54.62). '(Winning) was great. I'll be honest, I don't feel great after that. I've had a tough schedule here and really, really happy with how things turned out,' said Kos. 'It's a great learning process and I think I might be happy with that.' He had just earned a bronze in the 200m medley the night before, having also finished fourth in the 100m back final on July 29 and taken part in the 4x100m freestyle relay on July 27. He has one last event in the 50m back , with the heats and semi-finals on Aug 2 and the final on Aug 3 . In the women's 100m free, Dutchwoman Marrit Steenbergen retained her title, clocking 52.55sec, ahead of Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan (52.67) and American Torri Huske (52.89). Steenbergen, who finished seventh at the Paris Olympics, said: 'For me, this year was better. (Winning for) the first time, you don't have that much pressure (but) the second time, people expect more of you because you're the reigning world champion.' With Olympic gold medallist Sarah Sjostrom on maternity leave and Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey out with an injury, Steenbergen said the field here is 'really different', adding: 'I don't know if it's tougher here (but) I think the world championships is always tough to race.' In the day's final race, Britain's Matthew Richards, James Guy, Jack McMillan and Duncan Scott took home the gold in the men's 4x200m freestyle relay in 6:59.84. China's Ji Xinjie, Pan Zhanle, Wang Shun and Zhang Zhanshuo claimed silver in 7:00.91, breaking the Asian record set by South Korea (7:01.73) at the Asian Games in Hangzhou in 2023. Australia's quartet of Flynn Southam, Charlie Hawke, Kai James Taylor and Maximillian Giuliani finished third in 7:00.98. McMillan said: 'I said to the boys that we can't think this is normal. This is pretty special and we can't take it for granted at all because (it was) so hard fought. 'Everyone is kind of looking at us now and challenging us. No matter what way we swim, they're looking to get at us. We've got good depth in this event and that drives each of us as well.' Singapore (7:23.00) were 15th of 16 in the heats.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Straits Times
Russia hopes swimming return paves way for end to sporting neutrality
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Neutrals (from left) Miron Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Daria Klepikova and Daria Trofimova with their mixed 4x100m medley relay gold during the World Aquatics Championships on July 30. LONDON – One of the key figures behind diplomatic efforts that secured Russian swimmers' return to elite competition at this week's World Championships is now hoping to end Russia's sporting neutrality, as officials push for wider Olympic participation. The Russian Olympic Committee was banned for violating the Olympic Charter in relation to Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but some of its athletes competed as neutrals at the 2024 Paris Olympics and sports such as swimming are gradually welcoming more Russians back into the fold. Dmitry Mazepin, president of the Russian Aquatic Sports Federation and vice-president of the ROC, said he would do his best to ensure that Russian athletes compete under their national flag in time for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and urged the sporting community to end double standards. 'If you are in the wrong sport, you will be punished,' he said, pointing to tennis and ice hockey, where individuals have been allowed to continue competing, while many swimmers have been left out in the cold. 'I'm happy for the moment that my athletes and swimmers can compete everywhere. Unfortunately with the neutral flag, but they can compete.' Mazepin said negotiations on swimming participation included personal meetings with World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam and countering what he called 'political' opposition from certain countries, particularly Nordic states. The doping scandals that plagued Russian sport for years no longer form a part of opposition to Russians' participation, he said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Tech Reporting suspected advanced cyber attacks will provide a defence framework: Shanmugam Business Singapore's US tariff rate stays at 10%, but the Republic is not out of the woods yet Asia Asia-Pacific economies welcome new US tariff rates, but concerns over extent of full impact remain Business ST explains: How Trump tariffs could affect Singapore SMEs, jobs and markets Singapore Thundery showers expected on most days in first half of August Singapore SPH Media awards three journalism scholarships to budding newsroom talent Singapore Synapxe chief executive, MND deputy secretary to become new perm secs on Sept 1 Singapore 5 women face capital charges after they were allegedly found with nearly 27kg of cocaine in S'pore 'It's always about political cases,' Mazepin said. 'We do not discuss any doping issues.' In October 2023, the IOC suspended the ROC for admitting regional sports organisations under the authority of the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine as members. The four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia were annexed after referendums that Western nations have dismissed as shams. Mazepin said the ROC had made changes, now structured by federation rather than geography, and was pushing the IOC to remove restrictions based on its new structure. A final decision will ultimately come down to new IOC president Kirsty Coventry, but previous IOC statements suggest any significant relief for Russia is unlikely while it continues to wage war in Ukraine. The IOC has condemned Russia's 'senseless war', describing it as a violation of the Olympic Charter for which it holds the Russian and Belarusian states and governments solely responsible. Mazepin criticised what he views as another double standard – that nations involved in other conflicts around the world have not also been punished in sporting terms. 'We, as the Russian sports community, are asking why we were punished and others were not touched,' he said. 'But we are dreaming of a comeback.' REUTERS
