38 Facts About Caster Semenya

Caster Semenya OIB was born on 7 January 1991 and is a South African middle-distance runner and winner of two Olympic gold medals and three World Championships in the women's 800 metres.

Caster Semenya first won gold at the World Championships in 2009 and went on to win at the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships, where she won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres.

Caster Semenya refused to undergo the treatment, which is mandatory.

Caster Semenya has filed a series of legal cases to restore her ability to compete in these events without testosterone suppression, arguing that the World Athletics rules are discriminatory.

Caster Semenya was born in Ga-Masehlong, a village in South Africa near Polokwane, and grew up in the village of Fairlie in South Africa's northern Limpopo province.

Caster Semenya attended Nthema Secondary School and the University of North West as a sports science student.

Caster Semenya has said that she was born with a vagina and internal undescended testes, but that she has no uterus or fallopian tubes and does not menstruate.

In July, Caster Semenya participated in the 2008 World Junior Championships in the 800 m and did not qualify for the finals.

Caster Semenya won gold at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games with a time of 2:04.23.

Caster Semenya simultaneously beat the Senior and Junior South African records held by Zelda Pretorius at 1:58.85, and Zola Budd at 2:00.90, respectively.

In November 2009, South Africa's sports ministry issued a statement that Caster Semenya had reached an agreement with the IAAF to keep her medal and award.

Caster Semenya apologised for personally having failed to protect her.

Caster Semenya had previously lied to Semenya about the purpose of the tests and to others about having performed the tests.

Caster Semenya ignored a request from ASA team doctor Harold Adams to withdraw Semenya from the World Championships over concerns about the need to keep her medical records confidential.

Caster Semenya returned to competition nine days later, winning two minor races in Finland.

On 22 August 2010, running on the same track as her World Championship victory, Caster Semenya started slowly but finished strongly, dipping under 2:00 for the first time since the controversy, while winning the ISTAF meet in Berlin.

In 2017, Savinova was banned for doping and her results were disqualified, resulting in Caster Semenya being awarded the gold medal.

Caster Semenya was chosen to carry the country's flag during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Caster Semenya later won a silver medal in the women's 800 metres of these games, with a time of 1:57.23 seconds, her season's best.

Caster Semenya passed six competitors in the last 150 metres, but did not pass world champion Mariya Savinova of Russia, who took gold in a time of 1:56.19, finishing 1.04 seconds before Semenya.

The International Olympic Committee reallocated the London 2012 medals, and Caster Semenya's silver was upgraded to gold.

Caster Semenya won the bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the 2017 World Championships held in London.

Caster Semenya won the gold medal in the women's 800m event.

In September 2019, Caster Semenya joined the South African SAFA Sasol Women's League football club JVW FC, owned by Janine van Wyk.

On 15 April 2021, Caster Semenya confirmed she would not try to make the Tokyo 2020 200 m qualifying standard.

On 28 May 2021, Caster Semenya ran a personal best of 15:32.15 in the 5000m, 22 seconds slower than the necessary time to be allowed to compete at the Olympics.

Caster Semenya ran in the 5000 meter race at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

Caster Semenya finished almost a minute behind first place in her heat of the semifinals, and did not advance to the finals.

In June 2018, Caster Semenya announced that she would legally challenge the IAAF rules, calling them "discriminatory, irrational, [and] unjustifiable".

Caster Semenya claimed that testosterone-suppressing medication, which she had taken from 2010 to 2015, had made her feel "constantly sick" and caused her abdominal pain, and that the IAAF had used her as a "guinea pig" to test the medication's effects.

That same month, Caster Semenya appealed the decision to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.

In February 2021, Caster Semenya appealed the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

In 2012, Caster Semenya was awarded South African Sportswoman of the Year Award at the SA Sports Awards in Sun City.

Caster Semenya received the bronze Order of Ikhamanga on 27 April 2014, as part of Freedom Day festivities.

Caster Semenya married her long-term partner, Violet Raseboya, in December 2015 and January 2017.

In October 2016, the IAAF announced that Caster Semenya was shortlisted for women's 2016 World Athlete of the Year.

Caster Semenya was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2019.

Caster Semenya was one of the athletes whose cases were profiled in Phyllis Ellis's 2022 documentary film Category: Woman.