Caster Semenya became an Olympic champion, at the second time of asking earlier this month.
The South African, who won silver in London four years ago, won the women's 800-metres final in one of the most comfortable performances of the Games. The 2009 World Champion won the final by more than a second.
Despite the ease of her win, Semenya's triumph was one of the more controversial events of the Games. Semenya is a hyperandrogenic athlete which gives her a substantially larger natural level of testosterone, compared to her rivals.
Semenya's win came after a ruling stating hyperandrogenic athletes need hormone-lowering therapy was overturned. After the 800-metres final, Great Britain's Lynsey Sharp said it was hard for athletes to compete against Semenya when the ruling stood. Sharp finished in sixth place behind the South African despite running a personal best.
On Wednesday night's Off the Ball, Ross Tucker, a South African Professor of Exercise Physiology spoke about Semenya's situation, and the reaction to her gold medal win at home in South Africa.
As for once it happens, don't ask after, rather look backwards. My opinions are here: https://t.co/r3MKrCwfsu and https://t.co/Q8sEcWS8mq
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) August 20, 2016
"A week before she raced, Paula Radcliffe came out and said something that was not entirely well advised. A campaign started on Twitter to say 'Hands Off Caster'. Anyone who raised questions, which I think are legitimate questions - this is obviously an issue that needs to be discussed, far beyond one person."
"It does focus on one person because she is the one who is winning races and potentially challenging World Records. Always it keeps coming back to Semenya. You cannot get people to recognise that this is actually an 80-year-long issue in sport, and it's been seven-years since Semenya's first public exposure in 2009. We need to be to address the issue, not the person."
Despite the controversy that has followed Semenya in recent years, Tucker told Off the Ball that she remains very popular in her native country. South Africa won two gold medals in Brazil with Wayde van Niekerk winning the other medal as he broke the 400-metres World Record.
"She's widely popular here for obvious, understandable reasons. She represents defiance against a lot of thing that certainly here in South Africa, people like to be defiant about."
Whatever happens with the IAAF ruling on hyperandrogenic athletes, Semenya's situation has cast on unwanted light on the athletics world.
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