The teenager is currently at the centre of a massive row after the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) admitted that they had carried out a series of tests on her to confirm her gender and whether she was eligible to compete as a female.

Semenya said: "I didn’t do this to prove a point but rather to have fun.

"I don’t give a damn what people say about me.

"I like me the way I am and who cares what other people say?
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“I enjoyed the shoot, wish I could do more, but I can’t because I don’t have time for them.

"I have training to prepare for the [2010] Commonwealth Games [in New Delhi], which are soon, and [studies] to get through at the same time.”

In one of the pictures in the five-page spread in You magazine, Semenya is dolled up in metallic tights, a shimmering top and towering stilettos.

In another, she wears a black-and-white mini dress, her hair, usually in corn rows, is combed out and her nails are painted.

Semenya said: “I’d like to dress up more often and wear dresses, but I never get the chance.

"I’d also like to learn to do my own make-up."

But the photo-shoot did not please everybody.

Colleen Lowe Morna, the executive director of the Gender Links advocacy organisation, said: “It is amazing how, in order to accept her, we have to turn her into our stereotypical image of what a woman should be.

"She’s made it clear she does not like dresses, high heels or glamour.

"Celebrating diversity means accepting women and men in all their shapes, sizes and forms, not moulding them into some typecast image of who we want them to be.

"Let Caster be Caster."


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August 2009: South Africa to name stadium after Semenya
August 2009: Thousands welcome Semenya home to South Africa