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Caster Semenya is a prominent South African athlete, predominantly a middle distance runner. Caster Semenya also gained fame after the change in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) testosterone rules in 2018.
Early life
Caster Semenya was born on January 7, 1991 and she is currently 32 years old. Caster hails from Ga-Masehlong, a South African town near Polokwane (Pietersburg), South Africa, and her zodiac sign is Capricorn.
Semenya then grew up in the town of Fairlie. It is a town deep in the Limpopo province of northern South Africa.
Caption: Caster posing for a photo with his mother. Source: Instagram
Speaking of his family, Caster has three sisters and one brother. Two of his sisters are Nkele Semenya and Thabang Semenya. As for her educational background, Caster attended Nthema Secondary School.
Later, he attended North West University, and was a sports science student there. Furthermore, his full name is Mokgadi Caster Semenya.
Body measurements
Caster Semenya is approximately 5 feet 10 inches or 1.78 meters tall and her weight is around 73 kg. Likewise, Caster has dark brown eyes and hair of the same color.
Career and professional life
Professionally, Caster Semenya is a runner who focuses on middle distances. Caster also won two Olympic gold medals and three world championships in the women’s 800 meters.
Caster won his first World Championship gold in the year 2009. In fact, Caster’s running journey began as training for football.
He then won the 2016 Olympics and the 2017 World Championships.
In these events, Caster won a bronze medal in the 1500 meters. Caster also received gold medals for the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics after Mariya Savinova’s doping disqualification.
Caption: Caster was captured after her victory. Source: Instagram
Furthermore, Caster Semenya is an intersex woman. She was assigned a female at birth with XY chromosomes and naturally high levels of testosterone. After her victory at the 2009 World Championship, Caster had to undergo sex testing.
Soon, the athlete was cleared to compete again the following year.
Then, in 2019, the authorities introduced new World Athletics rules. These new rules prevented women like Semenya from participating in 400, 800 and 1,500 meter events.
To participate in these events, women like Caster, who naturally have high levels of testosterone, had to take medications to suppress their testosterone levels.
More details
Caption: Caster was captured during her race. Source: Instagram
Also in September 2019, the athlete joined the JVW FC football club of the South African SAFA Sasol women’s league. The owner of this FC is Janine van Wyk. Recently, in 2021, Caster filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights against the restrictions.
Likewise, in the year 2020, Caster shared an announcement to switch to the 200 meters for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He decided this to avoid the ban from 400 meters to one mile.
Additionally, to qualify for the 200 meters, the athlete must achieve a qualifying time of 22.80. Prior to this, Caster had also won the 5000m at the South African championships in 2019.
At the beginning of 2010, new statesman included Caster Semenya in its annual list of “50 people who matter.” She was included on this list for unintentionally instigating an international and often bad-tempered debate about gender politics, feminism, and race.
After this, Caste became an inspiration for gender activists around the world.
Likewise, in 2012, Caster received the “South African Sportswoman of the Year” award at the SA Sports Awards in Sun City.
The athlete was also awarded the Order of Ikhamanga Bronze (OIB) on April 27, 2014. She received this award as part of the Freedom Day festivities.
Testosterone rule change
Caption: Caster posing for a photo with his prize. Source: Instagram
The IAAF announced new rules in April 2018. These new rules required athletes with specific differences in sexual development, testosterone levels of 5 nmol/L and above, and some sensitivity to androgens to take medications to lower their testosterone levels.
This rule would come into force on May 8, 2019.
However, these new rules only apply to athletes competing in the 400m, 800m and 1500m. Because of this limited scope of the changes, people speculate that the rule change was designed specifically to target Caster.
Then, in June 2018, athlete Caster announced that she would legally challenge the IAAF rules. The athlete shared that the hormonal medication she took between 2010 and 2015 made her feel constantly sick. Her hormonal medication also caused abdominal pain.
However, the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected his challenge in May 2019. This paved the way for the new rules to come into force. Later in July 2019, Caster said the current issue had destroyed her mentally and physically.
Likewise, Caster appealed the decision to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court but also rejected the appeal in September 2020.
This decision left Caster unable to compete at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha while his appeal continued. Then, in February 2021, the athlete filed an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights.
civil status
Caster married Violet Raseboya on January 7, 2017. The two had been long-time partners before their legal marriage in Pretoria, South Africa. The lovers share a daughter named Oratile Semenya, born on July 5, 2019.
Caption: Caster posing for a photo with his wife. Source: Instagram
Caster Semenya – Social Networks
Talking about his social media presence, Caster joined Twitter in December 2015 and so far he has more than 405.5k followers as of June 2021. Likewise, his Instagram username is @castersemenya800m. As of writing this biography, Caster had over 205,000 followers.
Caster Semenya – Net worth 2023
Moving on, Caster has an estimated net worth of $2 million US dollars.
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Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn