If not for sports, I’d probably be a criminal by now: Tebogo

Mumbai: Letsile Tebogo, Botswana’s 200m Olympic champion, spent his Wednesday morning in the company of over 1,000 kids and on the same tracks that he trained during his primary school years. “The memories, the flashbacks... that I came from here and now I’m a global star,” Tebogo said.

That stardom sparked brightest on the night of August 8, 2024, at the Stade de France in Paris, when Tebogo won a spectacular gold in the 200m final clocking 19.46s and beating American rival Noah Lyles. The timing made the 21-year-old the fifth fastest timing in history, and the medal gave Botswana their first Olympic champion.

For the south African country with a population of around 25 lakh, the achievement was history-defining (a half-day national holiday was declared). For their most accomplished athlete, it was life-altering.

Much like Neeraj Chopra’s first track and field medal at the Tokyo Olympics gave an unparalleled shot in the arm to Indian athletics, Tebogo’s Paris gold showed the path to a different life for kids in Bostwana who, as Tebogo puts it, often drift into the world of crime and drugs. “Everybody’s life changed after that day,” Tebogo told media on a virtual call after being announced as the World Athletics’ new Kids Athletics Ambassador.

“For me, my team, my family. It impacted everybody and I was happy to hear and see a lot of youngsters who are now more interested in getting into sports; not just athletics but venture into anything and become the face of that sport.

“For me, it’s all about pushing myself to try and take those kids (away) from those unlawful behaviours, show them the direction and show them that they can still do something out of the sport they get into.”

This is close to Tebogo’s heart because he has seen it from close quarters himself. Growing up in a rough neighbourhood, Tebogo was exposed to the world of crime from a young age. “If not for sports, I’d probably be a criminal by now,” he said. “Because in the neighbourhood that I grew up in, there were a lot of criminals. Back then, we thought that that was the only way to survive. But then, with sports, I knew I had to go to school (and) training. And then you don’t have the time to roam the streets to go into people’s houses. So once I discovered that, I started to pull in a few friends of mine, who are now playing football. And we always talk about how, if this didn’t work out, what would we be.”

Like his friends, Tebogo was also more into football as a kid — I was a left winger, he says — before teachers in his school discovered his potential and directed him towards athletics. “Athletics wasn’t that popular in Bostwana back then, up until the 2018 Commonwealth Games. From my side, everything was more towards football. Athletics was just part-time,” he said.

The part soon made way for full. At 18, Tebogo became the first man from Botswana to break the 10-second barrier in 100m. He won back-to-back 100m gold medals at the 2021 and 2022 World U-20 Championships, and a year later from the senior Worlds in Budapest, brought home the 100m silver and 200m bronze.

Last year’s Paris Olympics put a stamp on his global stardom as another face to watch out for on the track. Athletes from South African regions have been more renowned for long distance racing, but Tebogo’s sprint show over the last few years has changed that notion.

“Back in the days, the African continent was believed (to produce athletes) for long-distance events. For me, it was about taking the risk to make sure I show people that Africa is not just for long distances. It also can produce something more,” he said. “Now the long distances are slowly fading away, which is something I don’t want. I want us to be balanced between sprints and long distances.”

Rivalry with Lyles

Not just on the track, Tebogo also created quite a stir in his post-final press conference when he said he couldn’t be the face of world athletics because he wasn’t “an arrogant or loud person like Noah”. Lyles, who revealed after the final he had Covid-19, would like to have his say, on and off the track. Their rivalry is bound to grow, even though Tebogo added a friendly touch to it.

“We do get along off the track. When we’re on it, it’s all about business,” Tebogo said of Lyles. “The arrogance — he’s good to sell our sport, because he knows what to do. But with me, I shy away from doing that, because that’s how I am.”