(Johannesburg) He will turn 21 in June and comes from Botswana, a southern African country famous for its diamonds. But at the Paris Olympic Games, it is gold that Letsile Tebogo, the first African to medal in the 100m in the world championship last year, will be aiming for.
The athlete, who won silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m at the World Championships in Budapest, finished second on April 20 in Nairobi, over his favorite distance, the 200m, during the Kip Keino Classic. With the American Courtney Lindsey, they posted an identical time of 19 secs 61. “I am not disappointed by my performance”, reacted Tebogo, recalling that he had “a long season ahead of him”.
Tebogo, who also distinguished himself by establishing a new world record in the 300 meters (3069) in February in Pretoria – a distance that is rarely practiced – is convinced that African sprinters will dominate the season, with the highlight being the Olympic Games this summer in Paris.
“I am the fastest man in Africa over 200 m,” he recalled last week at a press conference, with the best continental time over this distance, established last year in 1950 in London.
His dream ? Becoming the first African to win races once dominated by his “idol”, Jamaican Usain Bolt. Since the legend’s retirement in 2017, who won eight Olympic gold medals, it is the Americans who dominate the world men’s sprint.
“He’s the person I admire the most. What he accomplished is incredible. Every time he ran, I watched him on TV,” he says.
“Everyone remembers Usain and I would like the public to remember me too when I hang up,” says the young man based at the University of Oregon, on the west coast of the United States.
“I don’t need to be number one of all time – being in the top three will be more than enough,” says the ambitious athlete, raised in Kanye, a small town 70 km from the capital of landlocked Botswana. and sparsely populated neighbor of South Africa.
“Rising Star”
No other African could boast of having finished in the top three in the 100m at a world championship until Tebogo excelled in Budapest.
On August 20, 2023, in the 100m final, he crossed the line in 9.88 seconds, 30 hundredths of the world record established by Bolt in 2009, at 5/100 e only from the American the American Noah Lyles, world champion. Five days later, he took third place in the 200m, 29 hundredths behind the champion, Lyles again.
His mother Seratiwa, a former athlete, had been consumed by blood in Budapest, where she had gone on the sly. “Always the fear of a false start, a disqualification, a pulled muscle or other injury,” she told a local radio station in Botswana.
Tebogo was relaxed, later explaining that he had a “clear” mind, an absolute necessity for a good race. “I relax by listening to music from my country. Besides the beauty, it reminds me of where I come from and who I represent.”
“The world considers him a rising athletic star,” emphasizes his mother, “but when he returns to Botswana, he is my humble and respectful son. »
Playing football as a child, like all his classmates, he quickly turned to athletics.
Tebogo shines in two consecutive under-20 championships, in 2021 in Kenya then a year later in Cali, Colombia, where he won the 100m final and finished second in the 200m. It was there that he began to imitate Bolt, turning around to gesticulate and smile at the Jamaican Bouwahjgie Nkrumie, his runner-up on the straight, as he crossed the finish.
“I didn’t mean any disrespect. I wanted the viewers to enjoy themselves and remind them of what Usain did in his time,” he explains, while waiting to write his own Olympic legend.