Botswana erupts in celebration as Olympic medallists including Tebogo return from Paris 2024
Double Olympic medallist Letsile Tebogo and his Botswana teammates returned home on Tuesday [14 August] to the ecstatic cheers of fans who turned out in thousands to welcome their heroes from the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
There was a water salute when their flight touched down, while hundreds of Batswana packed the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport and many more lined the streets in the African nation's capital Gaborone, as the athletes paraded on an open top bus to celebrate their historic Olympic experience.
Team Botswana was met and feted officially by President Mokgweetsi Masisi who declared a half-day public holiday for the nation to savour the two medals from the Games in France.
Over 30,000 fans packed the National Stadium to celebrate Tebogo, their country’s first ever Olympic gold medallist. Tebogo, 21, became the first African to win the men’s 200m at the Games, doing so in a continental record of 19.46 seconds, ahead of Team USA’s Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles in Paris on 8 August.
He then returned for silver in the men’s 4x400m relay, winning the country’s fourth-ever Olympic medal.
Team Botswana fans who truend up at the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport to welcome home their Paris 2024 Olympic team.
The African star is one of more than 600 IOC scholarship-holders who competed at Paris 2024.
The sprinter dedicated his country's first-ever Olympic gold to his mother Elizabeth Seratiwa, who passed away last May. He showed his spikes, displaying her date of birth, to the cameras, and had the initials of her name painted on his fingernails.
"I believe she could be one of the happiest people on the planet," said an emotional Tebogo, who won 200m bronze at last year's world championships. "She believed in me, and I had so much doubt for myself."
“It means a lot to the African continent because now they see Africa as a sprinting home," he said. "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."