Previously month, Letsile Tebogo’s life has utterly modified. The 21-year-old Botswanian sprinter was topped the Olympic 200m champion in Paris, upsetting American Noah Lyles with a blistering time of 19.46 seconds and securing his nation’s first-ever Olympic gold medal. Every week later, upon returning to Botswana, Tebogo was welcomed by tens of hundreds of followers who packed the nationwide stadium within the capital metropolis of Gaborone, wanting to catch a glimpse of their golden sprinter.
On Wednesday afternoon, Tebogo fulfilled one other lifelong dream by assembly Pope Francis on the Vatican earlier than his look on the Rome Diamond League on Friday.
“It’s one thing I dreamed of as a baby”
Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo on assembly @Pontifex at #RomeDL🇮🇹#DiamondLeague pic.twitter.com/Ggl36epCKz
— Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) August 29, 2024
“It’s one thing I dreamed of as a baby,” Tebogo mentioned throughout a Diamond League press convention on Thursday about assembly the Pope. Throughout their assembly, Pope Francis and Tebogo shared a heartfelt second, reportedly saying a prayer for Tebogo’s mom, who tragically handed away earlier this yr at 43 because of breast most cancers. The Pope was additionally pictured signing Tebogo’s spikes from his gold-medal-winning run in Paris. The spikes are engraved together with his mom’s initials and her birthdate (23.12.1980).
On Friday, Tebogo will compete within the males’s 100m on the Rome Diamond League in opposition to a stellar subject that features Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, two-time Olympic 100m medalist Fred Kerley and reigning world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman. This might be Tebogo’s first 100m race since setting a nationwide report of 9.86 seconds within the males’s 100m Olympic ultimate, the place he completed sixth in a fiercely contested race that noticed eight males run below 9.95 seconds.
Tebogo’s journey in athletics started simply 5 years in the past, when he began sprinting barefoot in his hometown of Kanye. The next yr, he transitioned to carrying footwear, gained his nationwide championships and determined to give attention to athletics over soccer. “Operating with out footwear in Africa and in poor areas of the world is regular,” Tebogo remarked. He spoke a few sturdy want to deliver extra funding to athletics in Africa to enhance services, noting that Africa stays the one continent by no means to have hosted the Olympic Video games.
