Johannesburg - Athlete Caster Semenya will be taking a day to rest and get out of the media spotlight, her team manager said on Tuesday.

"She needs to take a day's rest and focus on her family. She needs to get out of the media spotlight," Hendrick Mokgamyetsi said on the sidelines of a press briefing after the South African team's chaotic welcome at OR Tambo International Airport.

Mokgamyetsi said it was difficult for the shy 18-year-old to grapple with all the media attention she'd been receiving at the championships in Berlin as well as back home.

"She's really trying... but we are all supporting her. It was difficult and we had to help her go through that."

Athletics SA president Leonard Chuene told the briefing: "We are not going to allow Europeans to describe and define our child... we will define our child," he said of the controversy surrounding Semenya's gender.

Semenya had been "traumatised" by the "international hostile media".

The 18-year-old runner did not address the briefing and sat alongside fellow gold-medal winner Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and silver medallist Khotso Mokoena, along with ANC MP Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.