Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo, born on June 7, 2003, made history in world sprint by becoming the Olympic champion in the 200 m at the Paris Olympic Games on Thursday, August 8, 2024, in 19.46. He thus beat the African record of the distance which he was holding since 2023 clocking 19.50 after having erased the 19.68 of Namibian Frankie Fredericks. During these Olympic Games, he reached the final of the 100 m, where he ranked sixth with a new national record of 9.86.
On August 9, he participated in the 4 × 400 m relay with his team and won their heat. In the final, as the last relay runner, he won the silver medal after an intense battle against Rai Benjamin of the United States, also setting a new Area record. In this final, Letsile Tebogo achieved the second fastest split in history in 43.04, just behind Michael Johnson's legendary 42.94 in 1993.
The day after his victory, Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared the afternoon of August 9, 2024, a public holiday in honor of Tebogo's exceptional performance. He thus became the first athlete from his country to win a gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games. On February 17, 2024 in Pretoria, Letsile Tebogo set the best world performance of all time in the 300m in 30’’69, improving Wayde van Niekerk’s mark from 2017 by 12/100th of a second.
In 2023, at the World Championships in Budapest, Letsile Tebogo became the first African athlete to stand on the podium in the 100 m at the world championships. Beaten by 5/100th of a second by the American Noah Lyles, he set a new Botswana record in 9’’88 and was only 1/100th of a second ahead of the British Zharnel Hughes. A few days later, he won the bronze medal in the 200m with a time of 19’’81, behind the Americans Noah Lyles and Erriyon Knighton.
He also holds the junior world record for the 100m with 9.91 seconds. He is also the youngest athlete to have run 100m in less than 10 seconds, having achieved this feat at the age of 18 years and 327 days.
