South African athlete in court – level 2

South African athlete in court

16-07-2025 07:00

Caster Semenya is a famous runner from South Africa. She won two Olympic gold medals in the 800 meters. She was born with a health condition called DSD. Because of this, her body has more testosterone than other women.

In 2019, World Athletics made a rule that said women with high testosterone cannot run in some races. Caster went to court because she thinks this rule is not fair. The European Court of Human Rights said a Swiss court didn’t give her a fair chance to speak.

Caster cannot run again yet, but she is happy the court supported part of her case. She wants to protect her rights and help others like her. She fought for this for many years.

Difficult words: condition (a health situation a person has), testosterone (a hormone in the body), support (to agree with someone or to help them).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.

What did the European Court of Human Rights say about how the Swiss court handled Caster Semenya’s case?

LEARN 3000 WORDS with NEWS IN LEVELS

News in Levels is designed to teach you 3000 words in English. Please follow the instructions
below.

How to improve your English with News in Levels: 

Test

  1. Do the test at Test Languages.
  2. Go to your level. Go to Level 1 if you know 1-1000 words. Go to Level 2 if you know 1000-2000 words. Go to Level 3 if you know 2000-3000 words.

Reading

  1. Read two news articles every day.
  2. Read the news articles from the day before and check if you remember all new words.

Listening

  1. Listen to the news from today and read the text at the same time.
  2. Listen to the news from today without reading the text.

Writing

  1. Answer the question under today’s news and write the answer in the comments.

Speaking

  1. Choose one person from our Conversation section.
  2. Talk with this person. You can answer questions from Speak in Levels.

 

Stock images by Depositphotos