Caster Semenya won the Olympic Silver medal in 2012 for the 800m, due to the doping scandal in Russia, that medal is now being upgraded to a Gold medal.
The upgrade is a formality that must occur when the current standing gold medal holder is stripped of their title. Officially the Gold medal then goes to the Silver medal holder, that being Caster Semenya.
The Gold medal will mean that Caster Semenya will technically be the first South African athlete to have back-to-back Olympic gold medals in the 800m.
Mariya Savinova was stripped of all medals from 2010 to 2013, they have been stripped due to the Russian Doping scandal in 2016. This includes the result from the 2011 World Championship, which Caster also came in second.
That means that Caster will possibly also hold the title of World Champion for 2011 as well as the winner of the 800m Olympic Gold. Caster Semenya’s current coach, Jean Verster, has said,
“His athlete could become South Africa’s greatest athlete overnight at the age of just 26. ‘We’re waiting to hear about that [whether the 2011 World Championships result will also be bumped up], but it might mean another gold there. She could be a double Olympic champion and a double world champion, which would make her our greatest athlete. That would make for quite a remarkable career, given that she’s still got some way to go.’”
Jean Verster feels comforted that athletes who cheated and doped to get the upper hand are now being caught even after 5 years.
“It’s good to know that even if you cheat, many years down the line you can get caught. I hope that acts as a deterrent for the cheats out there.”
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