Caster Semenya has been waiting to compete, let alone clinch Olympic gold in the women’s 800m event, which she did last year at the Rio Olympics.
The 26-year-old has been at the center of a gender row with the IAAF since 2009. Although cleared to compete in July 2010, the controversial topic has surrounded her ever since.
Born in Ga-Masehlong, Semenya has not only become the face of gender equality in international sport, but the face of same-sex marriage in South Africa when she married her partner, Violet, in 2015. She paved the way for her Olympic success when she became the first woman to win the 400m, 800m and 1500m events at the 2016 South African National Championships.
In Rio, the talented athlete was subject to a magnitude of abuse after winning gold, but she took it in her stride, proving herself to be a gracious winner on and off the athletics track. A former Tukkies student, Semenya is now based at the North West University where she trains under Jean Verster.
Semenya’s combination of speed and grace under pressure really encapsulate who this golden woman is – a natural-born athlete who has little to prove and so much more to achieve.
|I live by the words: Dream and do it.|
