After his victory in the men’s 200m final at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Letsile Tebogo was asked if he aspired to become the face of athletics. “I can’t be the face of athletics because I’m not an arrogant or loud person like Noah [Lyles]. So, I believe Noah is the face of athletics,” was his response. Over the year, this bitter-sweet rivalry has been brewing. Today it stands at 3-2 in favor of the American. The Botswana sprinter has the chance to equal that in Zurich. But before that, he had something to say.

In an interview with Citius Mag today, Tebogo was asked if there had been any conversation about him just focusing on the 200m. He replied, “We haven’t had that conversation because once you do that, you eliminate the 100m. Once you eliminate the 100m, you become frustrated when you see a race being won by a time that you think you could have won that race with.” Clearly, he will be frustrated if he pulls out of the 100m at the World Championship, and then the winning time is something he could clock.

If not the gold, maybe he could clock a time that could guarantee him a podium finish. Take Shelly-Ann, for example. She did not race in the Semis of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the bronze in the 100m went to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who clocked a time of 10.92 seconds. The Jamaican’s personal best that season was 10.91s. So, there were chances. Plus, Tebogo has already met the qualification standard (10s) for the men’s 100m.

He clocked a time of 9.88 seconds at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. But he hasn’t officially entered the event yet. The deadline for athletes to be formally nominated by their national federations is September 1, 2025, at midnight Monaco time. So, the Botswana Athletics Association will need to confirm his participation before that.

Now, the world has its eyes set on Tokyo to watch Noah Lyles and Letsile Tebogo clash in the 200m after the American lost to him in the Olympics last year. Tebogo claimed the gold medal with 19.46 seconds, setting a new African record and becoming Botswana’s first Olympic gold medalist in any sport. Meanwhile, Noah was third in 19.70 seconds, behind Kenny Bednarek’s 19.62. So, Tokyo is kind of a rematch, but we might see them race in the 100m because Tebogo is not shy of running multiple disciplines.

Letsile Tebogo’s thoughts on running multiple disciplines

In the Zurich Press conference today, Letsile Tebogo was asked about shifting between three different sprint disciplines. “It’s something that we have worked on, because the main problem was if we are to stick to only two events, then it means there’s no room for improvement going forward,” he answered. The 200m Olympic gold medalist clearly does not want to restrict himself to the 100 and 200-meter races alone. He gave some more explanations, too.

“So, us doing all the events it meant now the body knows it can do the longer distance, the shorter distance, so it’s still confused on which is which. So as time goes on, as we’re getting old, then that’s when we’ll stick to events only.” Tebogo himself has been running multiple disciplines this year.

He started his season with a 400m race at the BAA Track And Field Series 2, where he clocked 48.94 to finish second behind Tshepo Mooki (48.63). He ran three more 400m before he made his 200m debut at the FNB Botswana Golden Grand Prix.

There he won the race, recording a time of 20.23s. Immediately after this race, he made his 100m debut at the Potch Invitational Meet. He raced in the Final 13 and clocked a time of 10.55 seconds to win the race. After this, he kept jumping between the 100 and 200m. And keeping that juggle in mind, there are chances that we might see Letsile Tebogo vs Noah Lyles at the Tokyo World Championships before the 200m.

Excited?