Caster is a shirt-and-denims hero who shrugs off the haters

Caster Semenya

Caster Semenya

Published Dec 4, 2016

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It could have gone so horribly wrong, another South African teenage talent fed to the wolves. That happened to Zola Budd, when the waif-like barefoot track athlete was given a British passport of convenience and allowed to compete in the 1984 Olympics for a country that was a world apart from where she grew up in Bloemfontein.

Budd was pulled in every direction by those who wanted to get the most out of her - primarily England’s Daily Mail newspaper and the British government - and, while apartheid South Africa was being increasingly ostracised by the international community, Zola was given a ticket to run.

Regrets, she’s had a few and if she had her life over, I’m willing to bet she would have not wanted that “Great British” experience. It stripped her of her innocence and left her out to dry in a foreign land.

When Caster Semenya burst on the scene in 2009, it had eerie parallels. Then, one of South Africa’s most popular weekly magazines decided to give Semenya a "makeover" and labelled it, "Wow, Look At Caster Now!" and declared, "We Turn SA’s Power Girl Into Glamour Girl - And She Loves It!"

No she didn’t! Inside we saw images of Caster tottering on high heels, dressed to the nines, as the expression goes.

Coming on the back of a world championship win in Berlin that had created more news around the status of her gender, it was a crass attempt to climb aboard the Semenya bandwagon and turn her into someone she wasn’t and still isn’t.

Just 18 at the time, there was a very real chance of Semenya’s life - let alone her career - going off the rails, with the teenager being pulled in all directions. There was even an occasion when she went to the rest room at a petrol station and was told by an attendant to go to the men’s toilet. How humiliating that must have been for a young girl whose childhood dream was to be happy and play football.

Only Semenya and her family and closest friends must know what demons were swirling around in her head, but, this is one story with a happy ending. Now approaching her 26th birthday, Semenya is comfortable in her own skin and her own dress sense, it has to be said, with sneakers her footwear of choice; not high heels, and not a dress in sight.

In winning the Olympic gold medal in Rio, she fly-swatted away the "haters" as she calls them, and had another message for them when making her acceptance speech at the SA Sports Awards last week, where she was named SA Sportswoman of the Year. "Tsek!" she told them.

At the same function, Semenya happily posed for photographers with her wife Violet Raseboya and the pair are an extremely happy young couple. It’s a heart-warming story of perseverance and strength for the Olympic champion, whose name and character were dragged through the mud after that 2009 world title.

Now, when Semenya is featured on the covers of magazines, it’s usually a powerful image of celebration or, as a lifestyle magazine recently had her, in a white shirt and denims. That’s who she is, not a made-over circus act.

I had the privilege of also being able to see Semenya away from the glare of the cameras at the Rio Olympics. She was a committed Team SA member, sharing in the success of a squad who returned with 10 medals. On one occasion, in the lift in the athletes’ village on her way down to lunch, she offered a "howzit” and then remarked how happy she was because she’d watched triathlete Henri Schoeman on TV win a bronze medal.

There was every prospect of the international media bombarding her with questions and wanting to speak about issues around her gender, as opposed to the track, where she is the finest two-lap female runner in the world - and in time might even be the best over one lap and 1500m as well.

Semenya, like a seasoned superstar, defused the situation with aplomb. She quickly got the media to talk about the on-track performances and seemed ready for a fight. There was nothing coming back from the media, though.

On her triumphant return, the Springboks and Team SA athletes passed one another in Sao Paulo and Semenya was seen chatting happily to Bok players and posing for pictures with them. On board the return flight, she interacted with flight staff who were looking for selfies, and she made those around her feel at ease. There was no business-class treatment for her and she didn’t complain when given the lottery of a middle-row seat.

In a country full of extraordinary people and heroes, there are fewer bigger inspirations than Caster Semenya.

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