The double Olympic gold medals and three world championship titles have already made Caster Semenya a legend in world athletics, but the South African middle distance runner rates the yellow metal won at the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune higher in her achievements list.
Semenya is the two-time reigning Olympic champion in women’s 800-metre besides winning three world championship titles in 2009 Berlin, 2011 Daegu and 2017 London.
But the lanky runner, who hails from a small village of South Africa’s northern Limpopo province, considers the gold in Pune as most memorable as it gave her the confidence to take on the best in the business.
“When I became an Olympic champion it was a great achievement. When I combine them all, Berlin is my first major world title but the one that I will never forget is when for the first time I won any gold medal and that was in India – the Commonwealth Youth Games,” Semenya told a select group of Indian journalists on the sidelines of the Laureus World Sports Awards at Monaco.
“That’s when I knew that I have something in me being able to defeat the biggest rivals. When I talk about the biggest rivals, I am talking about the Kenyans – so being able to win over them was great.”
“I rate it at the highest because that’s when I was born, if I may say. That’s when I raised the bar for myself. It was my first appearance and being able to win in a big manner was great. That’s the biggest achievement you can ask for, especially coming from a rural area and then being on top. That’s basically was my introduction,” she added.
‘The controversy makes me hungry to win more’
Semenya not just had to fight adversities but also had to ward off a career-threatening controversy following her victory at the world championships. The International Association of Athletics Federations had asked her to take a sex verification test to ascertain whether she was female.
But she kept on fighting her case and after a period of nearly a year, she was eventually cleared to return to action in 2010. Since then, Semenya has performed under a cloud of scrutiny. But as a result of her dominance in the Rio Games, Semenya has been nominated for the Sportswoman of the Year at the Laureus World Sports Awards.
“It (the controversy) makes me hungry to win more. Obviously, I am always eager to improve from my previous races. For me, its about being consistent. That’s the goal for each and every athlete. For me its sweet, nice but its not easy to show emotions,” she said, talking about her comeback after the controversy.