CAPE TOWN (AP) — Two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya on Sunday expressed her disappointment with IOC President Kirsty Coventry over the decision to ban transgender women athletes from competing in women's events at the Olympics.
Semenya, who is South African, said she expected more from a woman leader like Coventry, who is from Zimbabwe and a fellow African.
“Personally, for her as a leader, she’s an African, I’m sure she understands how, you know, we as Africans, we are coming from, as a global South, you know, you cannot control genetics,” Semenya said at a press conference after a women’s race promoted to celebrate female strength, unity and community support in Cape Town. “For me personally, for her being a woman coming from Africa, knowing how, you know, African women or women in the global South are affected by that.”
Semenya spoke three days after the International Olympic Committee excluded transgender women athletes from competing in women's events at the Olympics or any IOC event. The decision published in a 10-page policy document Thursday also restricts female athletes such as Semenya with medical conditions known as differences in sex development, or DSD.
"Obviously if you say the science, because we talk about science here, if the science is clear, show us who decided and don’t dress that as a lie because it’s a lie and we know because we’ve seen it so if we were to answer or confront Kirsty that’s how we gonna respond and we’ll respond strong as we are because it affects women,” Semenya said.
Semenya, who was assigned female at birth in South Africa and has testosterone levels higher than the typical female range, is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 800 meters who has been banned from running in her favorite race at major international meets like the Olympics and world championships since 2019 because she refused to follow the rules and take medication to artificially reduce her hormone levels.
“For me personally, I’ll say the voice is not heard because you taking it as a tick box, you ticking a box so you can go clarify or say yes we’ve consulted," she said. "For me, it’s you ticking the box."
Semenya and other track athletes, such as Dutee Chand of India, challenged previous versions of their sport’s eligibility rules in court.
Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, three top-tier sports — track and field, swimming and cycling — excluded transgender women who had been through male puberty. Semenya won a European Court of Human Rights judgment in her years-long legal challenge to track and field’s rules that did not overturn them.
Last year, though, she claimed to have ended her seven-year legal challenge against sex eligibility rules despite that legal victory.
The eligibility policy that will apply from the Los Angeles Olympics in July 2028 “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,” the IOC said Thursday.
It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, though weightlifter Laurel Hubbard did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal.
The IOC said last week's decision was not retroactive and did not apply to any grassroots or recreational sports programs. The IOC's Olympic Charter states that access to play sport is a human right.
AP Winter Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - South Africa athlete Caster Semenya, center, answers reporters with lawyers Gregory Nott, left, and Shona Jolly KC after Semenya won a partial victory at the European Court of Human Rights on in her seven-year legal fight against track and field's sex eligibility rules, Thursday, July 10, 2025 in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Antonin Utz, File)
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts are gathering in Turkey on Tuesday for a two-day summit that comes at a turning point in the organization’s history as the United States steps back from its traditional security role in Europe.
Ahead of the meeting in Ankara, Trump has insisted on “loyalty” after some NATO countries balked at allowing U.S. forces to use their bases for attacks on Iran. He listed big European members Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain for criticism.
A NATO summit is a highly symbolic moment when the 32 member countries of the world’s biggest military alliance underline their unshakeable commitment to one another’s security. This year, though, the trans-Atlantic bond has rarely seemed more fragile.
Still, the meeting is being organized around the theme of a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO. The Trump administration has called for a reboot to a “NATO 3.0,” and it’s hoped that what this really means will become clearer over the next two days.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hosting the summit at his vast Bestepe Presidential Compound on the western edge of the Turkish capital, Ankara. A new airport, converted from an old military airfield, has been unveiled especially to host NATO leaders.
Security will be high. Air defenses are on alert, and tens of thousands of police will be on duty. Nearby neighborhoods are closed to traffic and some state workers have been given time off to help keep roads unclogged. Public gatherings are banned.
More than a dozen people were detained in security sweeps ahead of the summit, including two journalists, the Turkish Journalists Association said.
On Tuesday evening, Erdogan will host a dinner in his “Winter Garden.” Top officials from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand will join their NATO partners. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to attend.
As they dine, foreign ministers will hold a NATO Ukraine Council, while the alliance's defense ministers will meet with their Indo-Pacific counterparts. A separate meeting with officials from Gulf Arab countries will also take place, and Trump will meet with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
NATO leaders alone will hold a single working session on Wednesday morning. They’ll publish a short statement summarizing the results of their meeting once it’s over.
Officially topping the agenda is defense spending — a perennial issue at NATO as the U.S. presses allies to do more. Ahead of the summit, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte noted a 20% annual spending hike by European allies and Canada in 2025.
This is unlikely to be enough to satisfy the Trump administration, even after the leaders agreed at their last summit to boost investment to the same level as the United States, in gross domestic product terms. The 2026 U.S. military budget is set at $901 billion, or about 3.3% of GDP.
NATO also wants to highlight the way it’s converting the billions pouring in from state coffers into new military kit that’s adapted to modern warfare. The summit will be a chance for the organization to showcase new military projects.
A defense industry forum will be held on the sidelines of the meeting, on Tuesday, bringing senior NATO and partner officials together with industry leaders, as allies push to ramp up weapons production and spur innovation in new technologies.
Another top agenda item is continued support to Ukraine, now in a fifth year of full-scale war with Russia. European allies and Canada are funding most of Ukraine’s needs, including paying for about 90% of the country’s air defenses.
The working session is only expected to last about three hours, but most debate is likely to focus on U.S. force levels in Europe and the off-agenda item of fallout from the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.
European allies and Canada will want reassurances, or at least clarity, on U.S. force intentions. Since early last year, they have often been blindsided — and sometimes confounded — by Trump’s declarations on cutting troop numbers.
Ahead of the summit, the Pentagon surprised the allies by announcing a 6-month review of the U.S. presence. It’s focused on progress Europe is making to defend itself, but also on whether the U.S. has full base access and overflight.
NATO played no active role in the Iran war and has no overarching agreement with the United States on the shared use of bases and airspace, although some of its members do.
At a public meeting with Rutte on June 24, Trump renewed his criticism of the allies for their reluctance to get involved in the war. “We don’t need their money — we don’t need anything,” he said. “I just want loyalty.”
On joining NATO, member countries pledge loyalty equally to one another through a commitment to collective security — the all-for-one, one-for-all pledge enshrined in Article 5 of NATO’s treaty. That guarantee alone underpins everything the organization stands for and does.
What further loyalty Trump might require is unclear.
Police hold up their shields as protestors from the People's Liberation Party wave flags during a demonstration against the upcoming NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Riza Ozel)
A protestor holds a sign, center, which reads "killer USA", and another holds a sign, right, which reads "killer Nato out" during a demonstration ahead of the NATO Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Erdem Sahin)
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, center, French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attend a press conference at the E5 NATO Summit in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)
President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office at the White House, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Police patrol in front of a banner ahead of the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, July 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Riza Ozel)
