The 2024 Olympic Games in Paris ended on August 11, 2024, and the name on everyone’s lips was Letsile Tebogo.

Tebogo went into the 2024 Olympics relatively unknown but was welcomed by over 30,000 fans in his home country, Botswana, after the global event due to his exploits on the track.

On August 8, 2024, Letsile Tebogo competed in the final of the men’s 200m event at the Olympics and emerged as world champion in a time of 19.46 seconds, beating the American duo of Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles.

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The interesting part of Tebogo’s win is the fact that he is the first African to win an Olympic gold in the 200m final, and he did so in a time that saw him become the fifth fastest man in the history of the 200m event.

“I’m the Olympic champion; it’s something I have never seen in my life or dreamt of—it is an amazing moment,” Tebogo said to reporters after emerging champion.

“I just came here with the little that I had in me to push through because yesterday we made it to the final and my coach told me, ‘Now it’s your race.’

“It means a lot for everybody—the country, the continent, and my family.”

Another interesting part of his achievement that is not talked about often is that he is the first African to win an Olympic medal in the 200m in 28 years.

Prior to the Paris Olympics, the last African to win an Olympic medal in the 200m event was Namibian sprinter Frankie Fredericks, who finished second in the final of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Tebogo, 21, is the youngest man to win an Olympic gold since Booby Morrow, who also won the event at the age of 21 at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games in Australia.