About Caster Semenya
COUNTRY OF BIRTH
South Africa
INDUSTRY
Sport
TOP ACHIEVEMENTS
Caster Semenya is a South African athlete and two-time Olympic gold medalist for short and middle-distance running. She is also a soccer player with the JVW soccer club.
EARLY LIFE & EDUCATION
Semenya was born in a small village called Ga-Masehlong in the Polokwane province in South Africa. She grew up in Fairlie village in the Limpopo province and has four siblings. Semenya completed her basic schooling at Nthema Secondary School and enrolled in the sports science program at the University of North West.
EARLY CAREER
Running has always been a passion for Caster Semenya. Her natural aptitude for it became obvious when she ran at the African Junior Championships in 2009 and won the 800m and 1,500m races. Later that year she achieved great success competing in the World Championships where she won the gold in the 800m race and set a record.
ACHIEVEMENTS
Despite controversy about Semenya’s eligibility to compete based on her having an intersex trait, she continued to rapidly progress as an athlete making dramatic breakthroughs. In 2010 Semenya won two minor races in Finland and the ISTAF meet in Germany. In 2012 she carried the South African flag during the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony where she won a silver medal in the 800m race. In 2016, Semenya became the first person to with the 400m, 800m and 1,500m at the South African National Championships, and in 2017 she won a gold medal in the 800m and bronze in the 1,500m at the 2017 World Championships in London.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Voted by Track and Field News as the Number One Women’s 800m runner of the year in 2009.
- Included in the British magazine New Statesman as one of the ’50 People That Matter in 2010'.
- Awarded the ‘South African Sportswoman of the Year Award’ at the SA Sports Awards in 2012. Shortlisted for the women’s ‘World Athlete of the Year’ in 2016.
