Caster Semenya Biography, Olympic Medals, Records, Net Worth, Family
Mokgadi Caster Semenya OIB (born 7 January 1991) 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 also won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres.
After the doping disqualification of Mariya Savinova, she was also awarded gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and the 2012 Olympics.
Semenya is an intersæx woman, with 5α-Reductase 2 deficiency, assigned female at birth, with XY chromosomes and a natural heterogametic testosterone level.
Following her victory at the 2009 World Championships, she was made to undergo sæx testing and cleared to return to competition the following year.
Early Life and education
Semenya was born in Ga-Masehlong, a village in South Africa near Polokwane (previously called Pietersburg), and grew up in the village of Fairlie, deep in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province.
She has three sisters and a brother. Semenya attended Nthema Secondary School and the University of North West as a sports science student. She began running as training for association football.
Career
In July, Semenya participated in the 2008 World Junior Championships in the 800 m and did not qualify for the finals. She won gold at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games with a time of 2:04.23.
In the African Junior Championships, Semenya won both the 800 m and 1500 m races with times of 1:56.72 and 4:08.01, respectively. With that race, she improved her 800 m personal best by seven seconds in less than nine months, including four seconds in that race alone. The 800 m time was the world-leading time in 2009 at that date.
It was also a national record and a championship record. 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 August, Semenya won gold in the 800 meters at the World Championships with a time of 1:55.45 in the final, again setting the fastest time of the year.
In December 2009, Track and Field News voted Semenya the Number One Women’s 800-meter runner of the year.
2019 football career
In September 2019, Semenya joined the South African SAFA Sasol Women’s League football (soccer) club JVW F.C., owned by Janine van Wyk.
Tokyo 2020 Olympics
In 2020, Semenya announced that she had decided to switch to the 200 meters for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, in order to avoid the 400 m to one mile ban. In order to qualify for the 200 meters, Semenya would have needed to achieve the qualifying time of 22.80. She had previously won the 5000 m at the South African championship in 2019.
On 15 April 2021, Semenya confirmed she would not try to make the Tokyo 2020 200m qualifying standard. On 28 May 2021, Semenya ran a personal best of 15:32.15 in the 5000m, 22 seconds slower than the necessary speed to compete at the Olympics.
2022 World Championships
Semenya ran in the 5000 meter race at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. It was her first major international competition since 2017. She finished almost a minute behind first place in her heat of the semifinals, and did not advance to the finals.
Awards
In 2010, the British magazine New Statesman included Semenya in its annual list of “50 People That Matter” for unintentionally instigating “an international and often ill-tempered debate on gender politics, feminism, and race, becoming an inspiration to gender campaigners around the world”.
In 2012, Semenya was awarded South African Sportswoman of the Year Award at the SA Sports Awards in Sun City. Semenya received the bronze Order of Ikhamanga on 27 April 2014, as part of Freedom Day festivities.
Semenya married her long-term partner, Violet Raseboya, in December 2015. They revealed that Violet Raseboya gave birth to their daughter in 2020.
In October 2016, the IAAF announced that Semenya was shortlisted for women’s 2016 World Athlete of the Year.
Semenya was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2019.
Thanks for reading today’s news from GHKasa.com and we urge you to spread this news across the various social media networks and do follow us on our social media platforms as well on; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Telegram and more for the latest news over the web. Send your news stories to info@ghkasa.com.
