Letsile Tebogo, who beat Noah Lyles for Olympic gold medal, says: ‘I’d be a criminal by now without sports’
Letsile Tebogo, the Olympic 200m champion from Botswana, shared his journey from a crime-ridden neighborhood to athletic glory. Sports kept him focused and away from delinquency. Tebogo switched from football to athletics, eventually winning gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Now, he prepares for upcoming competitions, emphasizing the importance of not underestimating any rival.
NEW DELHI: Letsile Tebogo, the Olympic 200m champion from Botswana, shared his inspiring journey and the pivotal role athletics played in keeping him away from delinquency.
Growing up in a neighborhood plagued by criminal activities, Tebogo acknowledged that without the focus provided by sports, he could have easily fallen into the wrong path.
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“Sport has really helped me a lot because I think without sport … probably I would be a criminal by now,” 21-year-old Tebogo said. “In the neighbourhood where I grew up there were a lot of criminals, it was the only way to survive. But then with sport I knew I had to go to school and with training you are tired. You don’t have time to roam the streets and go into people’s houses.”
“So once I discovered that I tried to pull in a few friends of mine ..
. and now they are playing football,” he added. “We always talk about if this didn’t work out, where would we be?”
Tebogo credited athletics for giving him a purpose and keeping him occupied, preventing him from roaming the streets and engaging in unlawful activities.
He even encouraged his friends to take up sports like football, recognising the positive impact it had on their lives.
“I was more of a footballer, a left-winger.
The teachers at my primary school forced me into athletics. (Athletics) wasn’t that popular in Botswana back then, until the Commonwealth Games 2018. From my side I just wanted to see where it would take me. Athletics was just a part-time thing for me,” he added.
Despite athletics not being popular in Botswana at the time, Tebogo’s switch to the sport paid off handsomely when he beat legendary Noah Lyles to clinch the Olympic gold medal in the 200m event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, setting an African record of 19.46 seconds.
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While Tebogo clarified his previous comments about Noah Lyles’ “arrogance,” stating that it’s all business on the track.
“When you get onto the track, it’s all about business,” he added. “When we finish, you can be friends, life goes on. But the ‘arrogance’ (of Lyles)… he is good to sell our sport. But with me, I’ll always shy away from doing that because that’s me.”
As he prepares for the upcoming Diamond League meetings and the World Championships in Tokyo, Tebogo expects fierce competition from his rivals.
“Everybody who’s there on the lineup, it’s a rival. You cannot eliminate somebody because he didn’t perform well at the 2024 Olympics or 2023 World Championships,” he concluded.
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