Semenya hands her gold medal to her wife after arriving from Rio

(Right) Violet Raseboya, Caster Semenya's Wife. (Left) Kenya's Margaret Nyairera Wambui (L) and South Africa's Caster Semenya compete in the Women's 800m Final during the athletics event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 20, 2016. / AFP PHOTO

South Africa's Olympic medallists including track star Caster Semenya received a heroes welcome - and handed her gold medal to her adoring wife when they arrived from the Games in Brazil.

Hundreds of people gathered at Johannesburg's main airport cheered for the team which received a total of 10 medals, with gold from Wayde Van Niekerk for his world record setting 400- metres race.

South Africa's Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games gold medalist Caster Semenya passes her medal to her partner Violet Raseboya after arriving at the O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg

Van Niekerk, the new world champion is due to compete in the Diamond League and did not arrive home with the team as he had to travel to Lausanne, Switzerland for the Games.

South Africa's Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games gold medalist, Caster Semenya leaves with her partner Violet Raseboya after arriving at the O.R Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg

But it was the gender row athlete who received the loudest cheers from the crowd for her 800-metres victory, with chants "Caster, Caster".

"It's great to come home and receive such a welcome. I will always do my best," she told journalists.

"I hope that in four year's time there will be more people to fill the entire airport," she said referring to the next Olympic games in Tokyo in 2020.

Semenya, 25, first shot to international stardom in 2009 when she won the 800-metres at the World Championships in Berlin.

The star athlete has been dogged by questions around her gender, with suggestion that her body produced higher levels of male hormones.

Her competitors had raised concern that the condition gave her an unfair advantage.

The country's Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula told the crowd that the country was proud of Semenya, a university student who has become a national icon.

In Rio, South Africa equalled its record of 10 medals achieved in Antwerp in 1920 and Helsinki in 1954.

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