South Africa's Caster Semenya is in contention for another glittering career accolade. The three-time 800m world champion is among the nominees for the prestigious 2018 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award.
Semenya's nomination is well worth celebrating; she's in great company. Her fellow nominees are tennis ace and current Australian Open champion Serena Williams, 2017 Wimbledon champion Garbiñe Muguruza, 16-time world athletics championship medalist Allyson Felix‚ 19-year-old swimming sensation Katie Ledecky, and overall World Cup champion skier Mikaela Shiffrin.
Here is a short review of our star runner's remarkable 2017 and brilliant career.
Semenya made double history in August, when she scooped the gold medal in the 800m at the IAAF Championship in London. She defended her title for the second time and ran her lifetime best, with a time of 1:55.16s.
It was her second medal in the 2017 championship – a bronze in the women's 1,500m was her first – but her first gold. And it was for the same race in which she took gold in the IAAF World Championship both in 2009 in Berlin and in 2013 in Daegu.
Those aren't the only 800m gold medals under her belt; she has another from the 2008 World Junior Championships, one from the 2015 All Africa Games, and another from the 2016 African Championships (along with golds in the 1,500m and the 4x400m relay) – so she reigns supreme.
In 2016, she won her second Olympic gold medal in the 800m in Rio – just to remind critics of her greatness, and the fact that she'd already "been there; done that" at the 2012 Olympics in London. She continues to raise the bar, and is undeniably the world's best women's 800m runner; perhaps the GOAT.
South African sports fans, already giddy on Ngidi, are sure to wish her well at the 2018 Laureus World Sports Awards in Monaco on February 27.