Prior to now 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 1000’s 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 toddler”
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 toddler,” 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 12 months at 43 as a consequence 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 along 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 area that features Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs, two-time Olympic 100m medalist Fred Kerley and reigning world indoor 60m champion Christian Coleman. This will likely be Tebogo’s first 100m race since setting a nationwide report of 9.86 seconds within the males’s 100m Olympic last, the place he completed sixth in a fiercely contested race that noticed eight males run beneath 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 12 months, he transitioned to sporting sneakers, received his nationwide championships and determined to deal with athletics over soccer. “Operating with out sneakers in Africa and in poor areas of the world is regular,” Tebogo remarked. He spoke a few sturdy want to carry 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.