Freshly crowned Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo delivered a brilliant answer when asked if he could beat Usain Bolt’s world record.
On Thursday night, the men’s 200m final of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games took place in front of a capacity crowd at the Stade de France.
Prior to the race, American superstar Noah Lyles was the hot favourite having already won the 100m earlier in the week.
However, it was Tebogo who managed to shock the world as he produced a stunning performance to win gold with a time of 19.45 seconds.
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Kenny Bednarek of Team USA won silver and Lyles had to settle for bronze, it was then revealed that the 27-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the race.
After winning the 200m, the talk will move on to whether Tebogo can get close or even beat Bolt’s world record, which currently stands at 19.19 seconds.
The Jamaican set the time back in 2009 during the athletic world championship in Berlin.
Speaking earlier in the year, Tebogo was asked about potentially setting his own world record.
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He told Forbes Betting: “We have a better chance in the 200, I want to believe. Usain Bolt himself said in an interview that the 200-meter record might be the easier of the two, and I concur.
“We will have to start with other records that come before the world records, like area records and maybe third and second-fastest times ever, and some meeting and championship records, before we can really start the world record conversation.”
Tebogo added: “But like Nelson Mandela once said, ‘It always seems impossible until it’s done!’”
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Speaking about his upbringing, the 21-year-old said: “Apparently, I grew up as a naughty, hyperactive kid who loved football but discovered and loved athletics along the way.
“My family were not athletes. My mother did athletics a bit at school, but nothing really that serious. Those who did sports in our family played other sports like softball and football.”
He continued: “When I qualified for my first Bopssa Games in Namibia in 2016 to represent my country, that’s when I realized that there was something there to be explored.”
Topics: Olympics, Athletics, Usain Bolt
Marcus Chan