Reigning 200m Olympic champion, Letsile Tebogo, recently elaborated on his farming endeavours back home in Botswana. This comes just a few days after his successful Paris Olympic campaign that saw him clinch two medals in the 200m and 4x400m relay events.
Hailing from the small village of Kanye in Botswana, Tebogo has been one of the most formidable track and field athletes who have carved a name for himself in the African circuit. Apart from the track, he has also invested a lot of his time in farming and animal husbandry.
In a recent interview with Thomas Mlambo, the Botswana sprinter gave a detailed overview of his life outside of the track. Besides, he also opened up about his aspirations to shape his investment portfolio through farming. He said:
"I was in the farm this morning and I spent the night over there. Basically in the farm what we do is, I mostly have cattle and I need to have a solid plan on what I am going to do to increase the number of cattle."
He added:
"Personally I think I will go with the investment for me. I think athletics is not a long-term career so I need to have different opportunities and see how could we channel our money."
Letsile Tebogo ends debut Olympics with two medals
Letsile Tebogo's first Olympic appearance saw the 21-year-old finish the event with two medals. The sprinter not only clinched the first-ever Olympic gold medal for the country of Botswana but also registered an African record in the Men's 200m event.
He clocked a run time of 19.46 seconds as he held off formidable opponents such as Kenny Bednarek, Noah Lyles, and Erriyon Knighton to the finishing line.
Following his victory at the Stade de France, Letsile Tebogo opened up about the importance that this victory holds not just for him on an individual level but for the entire African continent. He stated (via Olympics.com):
"It means a lot to the African continent because now they see Africa as a sprinting home. So we just had to make sure that the message is loud and clear. It didn’t take so long, they were just waiting for me to step up."
Letsile Tebogo also helped the Botswana team finish second in the 4x400m relay event with a combined run time of 2:54.53s. Tebogo clocked a run time of just 43.04 seconds in his lap as the Botswana side registered the African record in the event.
Tebogo's side finished just behind the United States team which clinched the gold medal after registering the Olympic record run time of 2:54.43s in the event.