Tag: African sprinter

Letsile Tebogo : “Africans can be Sprinters, too!”

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People1 Comment
Letsile Tebogo after winning gold in 200m (Source: Onuaonline)

Since Frankie Fredericks of Namibia, who used to always win silver at the Olympics in the 1990s, no African has gotten close to the gold medal in the 100-200 m distances until Letsile Tebogo of Botswana who won the first African gold in the Men’s 200 m discipline ever, at the Paris 2024 Olympics. He also helped Botswana and an African country land silver in 4 x 400 m Men’s relay. By winning the gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Tebogo became the first Olympic gold medal winner from Botswana and the first runner from Africa to win the 200m final at the Olympic Games. He set a new African record by shaving off 0.04 seconds off his previous best to clock 19.46 s. “Africans can be sprinters, too,” he said in an interview to NBC Sports.

Letsile Tebogo (Source: SportNewsAfrica)

Tebogo started with a strong love for football (soccer). At the age of six, Tebogo was already a well-rounded footballer and sprinter. His teachers encouraged him to practice both sports, but injuries hampered his football career so he opted to focus solely on track. As he explained in an interview with Runblogrun.com., “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.” “[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 Tebogo struggled to raise him and his younger sibling. His mother, who was his pillar, passed away this past May and did not get to see her son achieve this great accomplishment, but there is no doubt that she would be very proud of her son. Tebogo dedicated his 200m gold medal win to her, and held up his shoe to the camera after the race, which featured his mother’s birthdate on it. He also painted her initials on his nails. … ” I’ve had such a huge blow that affected me deeply so I’m still trying to get the confidence back into the body. It’s not about injuries, it is all about my mum.” Reflecting on his Paris Olympic victory, Tebogo shared, “It was a truly memorable race. Heading into the final, my coach told me his job was done and the rest was up to me—to finish the race healthy, medal or not. I’m glad I could finish stronger than before, carrying the memory of my mother with every stride. She’s watching from above, and I know she’s proud. I chose not to mark the date of her death on my shoe because it’s too emotional.”

Flag of Botswana

He “didn’t take sprints seriously until 2019” when he raced his first major 100m in 10.68s and clocked 21.12s in the 200m. “For a while, I didn’t pay more attention to athletics until about 2018-2019 when I realized I could go professional with it,” Tebogo said. “The motivation to get into athletics was from watching the big guys like Isaac Makwala, Karabo Sibanda and Nijel Amos,” explained Tebogo. “However, I just really wanted some change in the country, so I had to do something different from the big guys, that’s why I opted to compete in the 100m and 200m.”

Like so many track and field athletes in the sprint distances, he looks up to Usain Bolt, the fastest man in the world and 8-times Olympic champion, and dreams of running faster and faster. “It’s time for Africa to take charge over the sprints and every event,” he said in the interview with Runblogrun.com.

Since his Olympic triumphant victory in Paris, he has been taking charge by winning 2 other games so far. Keep an eye out for Tebogo tonight at the Diamond League event in Rome, Italy.

Frankie Fredericks: Sprinting to the Finish for Namibia

On By Dr. Y.In Great Moments, Great People3 Comments
Frankie Fredericks raising the flag of Namibia
Frankie Fredericks raising the flag of Namibia

The athlete of the week is Frankie Fredericks: the handsome, good-looking, strong, fast, and powerful brother from Namibia.  Yep that’s right, Frankie Fredericks is one of those athletes I loved watching in the 1990s.  Always consistent, always strong, and everpresent, Frankie Fredericks was a force to reckon with.  How many silver medals has he gotten while contending the 100 m and 200 m at the Olympics?  4 Silver medals!  That’s right, an African with 4 silver olympic medals!  He has also won several gold medals at the World Championships, World Indoor Championships, All-Africa Games, and Commonwealth Games.  He is thus far Namibia’s only olympic medalist.

Frankie Fredericks coming 2nd to Donovan Bailey during the 100 m finale at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics
Frankie Fredericks coming 2nd to Donovan Bailey during the 100 m finale at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics

Born in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, Frankie began running at the age of 13, and particularly loved football (soccer for Americans).  However, when he was awarded a scholarship to attend Brigham Young University, in the USA in 1987, he quickly moved his passion to track and field.  In 1991, as Namibia gained independence from South Africa, Frankie started officially compete for his country.  At the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Frankie Fredericks won 2 silver medals in 100 m and 200m, giving Namibia its very first olympic medal.  In 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, Frankie again won 2 silver medals coming 2nd to Donovan Bailey in the 100m, and 2nd to Michael Johnson in the 200 m.  Due to injuries, Frankie was absent at Sydney Olympics in 2000, and Namibia dearly missed him there.  He raced the 200m at the Athens Olympics in 2004, and came out 4th, and finally retired at the end of that year at the age of 37 (Imagine a 37 year-old sprinter coming 4th at the olympics, running against young folks like Shawn Crawford, Justin Gatlin, and Bernard Williams).  At the beginning of that run in Athens, Frankie was given a standing ovation that lasted few minutes, and at the end, he said “It is quite emotional, … I always wanted to go out with a medal, but sometimes in life you don’t get everything you want.” Frankie has run the 100 m under 10 s more consistently than most athletes (he is ranked 4th behind Ato Boldon of Trinidad & Tobago, Maurice Greene of the US, and Asafa Powell of Jamaica).

Frankie Fredericks
Frankie Fredericks

Off track, Frankie has a computer science degree and a masters of business administration, and he has created the Frank Fredericks Foundation to foster young Namibian athletes. In 2004, he was  elected by fellow athletes to serve on the board of the International Olympic Committee. Please check out the tribute to Frankie Fredericks given by International Association of Athletics Federations IAAF athletics.

The personable and wildly popular Fredericks spent the greater part of a decade-and-a-half at the pinnacle of his craft, a record for longevity nearly unprecedented in the sprints.  What was always fun about watching Frankie run was his consistency: Frankie was constant on the distance, and a very reliable athlete, training hard to represent his country and continent at the highest level.  I am sure most people had never heard of the country Namibia, but when Frankie was running, the whole world could hear and feel Namibia rising!