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.

The Board of the ASA were forced to step down after its President Leonard Chuene admitted that he had lied and he knew that there were doubts over Semenya's gender and they had conducted tests on her before she travelled to the German capital for the Championships.

Pistorius won a landmark case last year to be allowed to compete in able-bodied events after he took the IAAF to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), who had claimed that his 'Cheetah'' prostheses he wears gave him an unfair advantage over his rivals.

Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP had been retained in September by Semenya at the recommendation of South Africa's Minister of Sports and Recreation to represent and advise her on a pro bono basis on all legal matters relating to her human rights and her rights as an athlete.

Nott (pictured), the managing partner of Dewey & LeBoeuf's Johannesburg office, has more than 20 years’ legal experience, having represented clients in seminal human rights matters during apartheid.

Jeffrey Kessler, the chairman of Dewey & LeBoeuf's global sports practice, said: "We learned during the Oscar Pistorius case that the rule of law does prevail in international sports and that equality of opportunity can be achieved.

"Hopefully, the IAAF has learned from this experience and we look forward to working with it to ensure a just outcome here for Ms. Semenya.

"The world will be watching."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected] 


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