After the victory in the Paris Olympics, Letsile Tebogo found a chunk of flashing chasing him everywhere. While his trademark Motswana dance has made several esteemed names his followers, his story of grit and endurance has found a huge number of fans side by side. But that focus has its own harmful effects, leaving almost little to no space to concentrate on himself. 

Today, after his loss to American rival Kenny Bednarek in the Diamond League final, he discussed the negative side of being under the spotlight. His straight victories in the last five 200m races had contributed largely to earning him fame. One of those victories came at the Stade de France. But his trademark exuberance did not work today. As per him, he couldn’t keep the momentum. 

In chasing the American rival in the 200m event today, Tebogo remained 0.13 seconds short. Such a fall in performance needed a justification, and the 21-year-old served that. In his post-race conversation, he said, “It has been a rollercoaster after the Olympics. So it wasn’t easy to keep the focus. The cameras are more on me now.” Somehow, it had affected him.

Today, Letsile Tebogo stepped onto the track with his usual body language. He was rightfully expected to claim his first Diamond League final trophy. He had also kept the stage ready with his strong words beforehand. The sprinter didn’t care about the names in the opponent camp for the 200m contest. 

Instead, Tebogo roared, “It’s 2 Africans against the rest of the world! It’s me and Joe, so I believe it will be an interesting race to see how Africans can do against the world.” In the end, the leaderboard displayed him taking the runner-up place while Joseph ‘Jo’ Fahnbulleh was in seventh place. So a chance of having overconfidence in himself can not be flouted. According to Letsile, all of these rained on him because of the limelight he had been enjoying, which deterred him from noticing the dark patch under the flame. But a track and field veteran had already noticed his shortcomings in his winning days. 

As per a veteran, Letsile Tebogo lacked a proper finish 

At the Paris Olympics, Letsile Tebogo demolished Noah Lyles’s ambition to make the sprint double. He took 19.46 seconds to shut down the voices that were supporting him. In the end, it was the African record in the men’s 200m event and Tebogo became the fifth name on the list of the world’s fastest 200m sprinter. Still, Justin Gatlin was not ready to give him the flowers for his achievement. 

Rather, the fourth-time world champion pointed out the loose ends in the Motswana athlete’s sprinting performance. In his podcast, Ready Set Go, Gatlin spoke out, “If you watched his last couple of 200s, he didn’t run; he didn’t execute a solid race. His time came out to be superior, but coming off the turn in his last couple of races he ran, he wasn’t even in first.” Those technical issues needed rapid addressing. But Letsile Tebogo failed to take up a measure. As a result, he had to miss posing a fitting end to his most memorable summer on the track. Now, he is eyeing to turn the table.