Sports News

As the highly anticipated Euro 2024 football tournament fast approaches, fans across Europe are bracing themselves for the bittersweet moment of ticket ballot results.

Two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya says that she is not going to be ashamed of being different and will fight for what is right amid her ongoing dispute with athletics authorities.

Semenya, 32, was born with differences of sexual development (DSD) which mean she has an elevated level of testosterone - a hormone that increases muscle mass and strength. The South African cannot compete in female track events without taking testosterone-reducing drugs.

Caster said recently she was turning her attention to winning battles against the authorities rather than collecting medals, with competing at the Paris 2024 Olympics no longer a goal. She said it was about fighting for the upcoming generation because there are a lot of kids affected by the same ruling.

Under regulations introduced in 2018, athletes with DSD were only allowed to compete in female track events between 400m and the mile if they reduced their testosterone levels. In March, World Athletics ruled that DSD athletes must now have hormone-suppressing treatment for six months before being eligible to compete in all female events.

Semenya, who won Olympic 800m gold in 2012 and 2016 and is a three-time world champion over the same distance, said: "For me I believe if you are a woman, you are a woman.

"No matter the differences you have. I have realised I want to live my life and fight for what I think and I believe in myself. I know I am a woman and anything that comes along with it just accept it."

She ran in the 5,000m at last year's World Championships in Oregon but failed to qualify for the final. In July, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in her favour in a case related to testosterone levels in female athletes.

"At the end of the day, I know I am different,” Caster added. “I don't care about the medical terms or what they tell me.

“Being born without a uterus or with internal testicles. Those don't make me less of a woman. Those are the differences I was born with and I will embrace them. I am not going to be ashamed because I am different. I am different and special and I feel great about it.

"It comes with why we fight for women's sport. The importance of women's sport is not being taken seriously and we need to take charge of our own bodies. Decide what is right for us. Not another gender deciding what we should look like.

"If we are woman enough or not, it is up to us. We know and believe in what is right, then why must we stop." The case at the ECHR was not against sporting bodies or DSD rules - but specifically against the government of Switzerland for not protecting Semenya's rights and dates back to a Swiss Supreme Court ruling three years ago.

The ECHR found the Swiss government did not protect Semenya from being discriminated against when its Supreme Court refused to overturn a decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), which upheld the World Athletics rules.

Little-known young Chinese golfer Chen Guxin is threatening to record a shock victory in the US$1.5 million Volvo China Open after carding a six-under-par 66 to take the third-round lead on 14-under at Hidden Grace Golf Club, in Shenzhen.

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) appears likely to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup after the only likely alternative, Australia, declined to bid.

Copt Heath Golf Club is driving forward with ambitious green initiatives as it aims to reduce its carbon emissions to Net Zero by 2030.

Thousands of people flooded the streets of Pretoria and Johannesburg as South Africa's rugby team begin a World Cup victory tour.

Two all-time greats of Brazilian sport paid a visit to a Laureus Sport for Good project founded by a third – to celebrate the creativity of one of the teenagers whose lives have been changed by the programme.

Appointed as chair of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in August 2021, Tom Ilube CBE is the first Black chair in the organisation’s History, after replacing Andy Cosslett at Twickenham, with the aim of overseeing the restoration of grassroots rugby.

The Jamaican Football Federation (JFF) says its Women's World Cup squad has now been paid after a row which saw the players boycott Gold Cup qualifiers.

The International Series 2023 schedule draws to a thrilling conclusion, Iron Heads GC star Scott Vincent has urged his former colleagues on the Asian Tour to ‘stay in the moment’ and join him on the LIV Golf League.

Flatrock Motorsports Park and Motorclub marked the one-year anniversary since breaking ground on America’s newest premium racing facility in the heart of Cumberland County, Tennessee.

South Africa clinched a record fourth Rugby World Cup title by doing just enough to deny 14-man New Zealand and retain their crown in Paris, as captain, Siya Kolisi goes down in History.

As Venus and Serena Williams carved their respective names in the pantheon of sporting history, no one knows better than them that Althea Gibson is, without question, the most significant athletic forces among Black women in sports history.

With one week to go ahead of the annual Farmfoods European Senior Masters, final preparations are underway to make this year’s event the best one yet.

New Zealand and South Africa are both bidding to become the first nation to win the Rugby World Cup for a fourth time in Paris.

A cricket charity is encouraging young people of African and Caribbean heritage to get into the game.