South African runner Caster Semenya has said that she is focused on achieving her dream of becoming an Olympic champion six years after the humiliation she suffered as her gender was called into question.
The 24-year-old gained widespread attention at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin when she won the 800m title and was subjected to gender testing by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Semenya then spent 11 months out of the sport before she was finally cleared to compete again and she has revealed the anguish that it has caused her.
"If it wasn't for my family, I don't think I could have survived," she told BBC Sport. "I was world champion but I was never able to celebrate it. It was a joke for me. When I grew up, I grew up like that. I grew up with boys, I grew up around boys, I cannot change it.
"It was upsetting, you feel humiliated. You cannot control what people think. It is about yourself, controlling yourself - what is in you. But now I want to focus more on the future, I don't want to go back there. What is done is done.
"I am a dreamer. And what I dream of is to become Olympic champion, world champion, world record holder - I can't stop running because of people. If you have a problem with it, you have to come straight to me and tell me. I cannot stop because people say 'no, she looks like a man, this and that'. It is their problem. Not mine."
Semenya claimed a silver medal in the 800m at London 2012.
Alex Meyers
