Semenya to sue IAAF and ASA in multi-million dollar lawsuits

Saturday, 26 December 2009

By Duncan Mackay

December 26 - Caster Semenya (pictured), the world 800 metres champion, is set to launch multi-million dollar law suits against the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and Athletics South Africa (ASA) over the gender row which she claims has wrecked her life. 

The South African teenager has retained Greg Nott, the lawyer from Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP who acted for South African double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius on a pro bono basis in his successful effort to overturn the IAAF's decision to ban him from competing in able-bodied track events and attempting to qualify for the Olympics in Beijing last year.

Semenya plans to sue the IAAF for $120 million (£75 million) and ASA for $18 million (£11 million).

She is angry that the IAAF allegedly leaked the information during the World Championships in Berlin in August that there were doubts about her gender and were then subsequently responsible for the information that tests had revealed she was a hermaphrodite.