Caster Semenya pleased with Team SA's track and field performance at the Olympics

Although she attended the recent Olympic Games as a guest, Semenya was impressed by the efforts of the South African athletics team, which contributed two of the nation’s six total medals.

As South Africa gears up for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, Semenya stresses the need for continued efforts to further support the team.

"I was there in person, in terms of development, I would say we are doing well. I think for us as a nation we just need to make sure that we back up our athletes but coaches need to understand that we need to focus on the goals and the goal is to win medals,” Semenya said.

“But also understand the process of getting into winning medals, which starts from practice. Also, how we race leads into that but I think it's a positive outcome being able to bring two medals, it shows that we can still do more it's just a matter of us as athletes, and as coaches to make sure that we work towards the goals not just to show up."

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Semenya, the gold medallist in the women’s 800m at both the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics, was particularly impressed by Jo-Ane Van Dyk’s silver medal performance in the women’s javelin.

Like many, she had high expectations for the relay team and Akani Simbine to also secure medals.

"I think what impressed me the most will be javelin because we have not expected anything out of javelin but we knew that she had a future, we knew that she was coming okay but we didn't expect it this year,” she added.

“For me, when I saw that, I was like, wow this is beautiful but then moving to the relay, we always knew that we stood a chance but we didn't know when. We have done it before in the World Relays but unfortunately with the circumstances we had to be disqualified.

“But with young talent like that being able to push so that when you have an anchor like that [Akani Simbine] with great experience, finalist in multiple Olympics and World Championships, you have everything. It's just a matter of how motivated are we to win medals."