It will take ages for the 2024 Paris euphoria to settle following Botswana's impressive haul of a silver and gold medal, the best return since the Moscow debut in 1980. The feeling of undiluted joy has been overwhelming, with sport emphatically making sure a nation is united by the team's victory. Hard as the nation tries to apportion equal praise to the whole team, one man, like a pebble on the beach, stands out. There has been one name within and outside Botswana's borders; Letsile Tebogo. Not that others were insignificant in creating Botswana's finest sport moment.
They proved to be vital cogs, particularly the 4x400m team that ensured that Team Botswana flew out of Paris with two medals. However, in almost every sport situation there is that vital component, the kingpin or the playmaker. Tebogo is what Diego Maradona was to Argentina, what Pele represented in Brazil and what Doctor Khumalo encapsulated during his heydays in South Africa. There is always that stand-out performer and Tebogo lived up to his billing with a bewildering 200m run that thrust Botswana into the global spotlight. After the 100m finals where Tebogo finished 6th, there was measured optimism with growing fears the Paris campaign would go awry. However, a focused Tebogo lifted the mood with blistering runs in the 200m heats and the semi-finals. It was in the semi-final that Botswana's star runner sent an unambiguous statement of intent when he left a boisterous Noah Lyles of the United States in his wake.
