Letsile Tebogo made history for Botswana on Thursday by winning the nation’s first-ever Olympic gold medal at the Paris 2024 Games.
The 21-year-old clinched the 200m title with an African record time of 19.46 seconds, placing him fifth on the world all-time list.
He edged out USA’s Kenny Bednarek, who took silver, and 100m champion Noah Lyles, who earned bronze in the fastest-ever time for a third-place finish, according to World Athletics.
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Tebogo took off one of his shoes after the race and showed it to the camera. The shoe had his mother’s date of birth in tribute to her. Tebogo’s mom Seratiwa passed away in May and he dedicated his win to her.
“It’s basically me carrying her through every stride that I take inside the field,” said Tebogo. “She’s watching up there, and she’s really, really happy. I didn’t want to put the date of her death, because I’ll get emotional.
“It was really a beautiful race for me,” he added. “When we made it to the final, my coach just told me: ‘Now my job is done, it’s up to you to see what you can do. Whether it’s a medal or not, just finish the race healthy.’ That’s all I could have wished for. I’m happy I finished the race healthier than before.”
Now the first African man to win the Olympic 200m title, here are three facts you probably did not know about the young speedster:
The sprinter started as a footballer but ended up a field runner
At just six years old, Tebogo was already excelling both as a footballer and a sprinter, as reported by Olympics.com.
While his teachers urged him to pursue both sports, recurring injuries led him to make the tough decision to focus exclusively on track.
“I used to run past people and won medals. I also played football. Every time though I went to play football I was being benched,” he explained his other motivation to focus on track instead of football in an interview with Runblogrun.com.
“[This] made me frustrated…and prompted my decision to go back to athletics as I saw [that] I am able to put food on the table for my family from that,” added the runner whose single mother Seratiwa struggled to raise him and his younger brother.
In 2016, at the Botswana Primary Schools Sport Association championships, a 13-year-old Tebogo dominated, winning the 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m relay, which earned him his first national team call-up.
Later that year, he secured a 200m bronze and a 4x100m relay silver at the Confederation of Schools Sports Association of Southern Africa Championships in Namibia.
He looked up to Usain Bolt as one of his biggest sources of inspiration
Usain Bolt, the eight-time Olympic champion and fastest man in history, set the world record of 9.58 seconds at the 2009 World Championships.
And nothing thrills rising star Tebogo than to be mentioned alongside Bolt, who broke the world record at 23.
He is not new to the world of making history
The U20 world champion became the first Botswanan runner to win a 100m event on the global stage.
He is also only the second man from Botswana, after London 2012 Olympics silver medallist Nijel Amos, to win gold at the World U20 Athletics Championships.
In April 2022, he set a new world U20 100m record clocking 9.96 at the Gaborone International Meet. He became only the second runner in history to break the 10-second barrier in the Under-20 age class.
Tebogo, who used to train without shoes, also became the first African to win a medal in the 100m at the world championships in 2023.
