No other athlete’s stock has risen as much as Letsile Tebogo since the Paris Olympics. The Motswana athlete who shocked the world after winning the gold medal in 200m defeating fan favorite Noah Lyles has the potential to become a genuine superstar coming out of Africa. However, unlike Noah, who thrives in trash talking off the court, Letsile has a different philosophy.

The Motswana athlete believes in letting his performances speak for him. “Athletes are all different; there’s the loud ones; there’s also the quiet ones,” he told Olympics.com, possibly hinting towards the US athlete. “So I believe silence is the way,” he added. Thus, Letsile Tebogo is not going to be outspoken at any point in his career. But he will speak about the issues that he feels are important, which includes speaking up for his continent and the lack of opportunities given to it when it comes to track competitions.

Letsile Tebogo raises concern about the lack of track competitions in Africa

Talking to Olympics.com, Letsile Tebogo expressed his desire to see more track events being hosted in Africa. The continent is all set to host the Summer Youth Games in 2026 in Dakar. Letsile, who has seemingly shown the world the potential of sprinting in African athletes through his gold medal, felt that the youth games should start a trend of hosting more competitions in Africa. “It shows that Africa has got great potential to host big events.”

He continued, “And it would be nicer if we could take some of the big championships to be hosted in Africa.” Letsile also added that there seems to be a disproportionate amount of competition among all the continents, which has resulted in African athletes traveling too much for competitions. “I believe as Africans we are tired of always traveling abroad. Why can’t we take a one-hour flight from our country into the next one and then go and compete?” This point raised by Letsile Tebogo is completely valid, as Africa has never hosted any huge competition.

They have never hosted an Olympic event or even a World Championship. While Kenya had made their desire to host the 2025 World Athletic Championship public, Tokyo was chosen as the host instead. Thus, keeping with the spirit of diversity, Africa must host a big event. This might come to fruition if Letsile continues his rise and becomes a genuine superstar, which does not seem unrealistic at all. This would bring more light to track and field in Africa. But, in recent days, Letsile has been quite vocal about the representation of athletes.

Letsile Tebogo slams Netflix for concentrating mainly on US athletes in Sprint

Letsile Tebogo is not a fan of the Sprint documentary series. The athlete felt that there was very little representation of athletes that weren’t from the US. “This is an American show,” he wrote on X. As he was one of the biggest stories to come out of Paris, many expected him to be involved in the main story a lot. However, the athlete has very limited screen time in it, making his main entry during the fourth episode.

The main chunk of the show concentrated on Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson, Kenny Bednarek, and a few others. But most of the screen time was given to the Americans. Thus, Letsile’s frustration with the show is completely justified. This also comes into the overarching debate of African athletes not getting much attention on the track.

Despite Letsile Tebogo winning the 200-meter gold, the show still decided to put their cameras on other athletes. To make track and field more popular worldwide, athletes from other lesser-known countries should also be given attention whenever they achieve something significant. It is the only way to inspire more athletes to join the sport.