South Africa's Shaun Maswanganyi on Carl Lewis motivating him 'to be great', and why he can be the shock 100m world champion
The 2023 NCAA 100m bronze medallist coached by the American track and field legend is one of the youngsters who could pull a surprise at the World Championships that begins on Saturday 19 August. In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com in Budapest, he opens up on his seven-year athletics journey and why he wants to be “bigger than the sport.”
Athletics
“The stakes are high this year. The 100m could be anyone's ball game,” says Shaun Maswanganyi with conviction.
The men’s 100m at the Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships appears to be one of the most open races of this year's event.
The South African's confidence stems from some of the great runs he’s raced this season, progress that has been nurtured and sharpened over the past three years by one of the great track and field legends, Carl Lewis.
The young sprint sensation could easily pass for just another athlete the nine-time Olympic champion coaches at the University of Houston.
But Maswanganyi is special.
He is currently the season’s tenth-fastest man in the 100m from his 9.91 dash, and is the top ranked South African after posting his first sub-20 seconds in the 200m.
With his admirable track experience and success, Lewis has instilled a winning culture, one that also makes the 22-year-old a solid medal contender in Budapest.
“When I step on the line, I want to be the best man in the field. So, I put pressure on myself every day,” he tells Olympics.com in Budapest.
“Some people might not have high expectations for me…but me and my coach, we've been working. It's not our first rodeo, and we have goals for us. And hopefully we can reach these goals here.”
At the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Maswanganyi will be up against Team USA’s reigning world champion, Fred Kerley, along with other global gold medallists Noah Lyles, Christian Coleman, and three of Africa's fastest men, his compatriot Akani Simbine, Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya, and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo.
Shaun Maswanganyi on matching the excellence of his coach Carl Lewis
Exactly 40 years ago, the first ever World Athletics Championships was held in Helsinki.
1983 also marked the start of another major period in track and field, the reign of Carl Lewis.
The then-22-year-old wowed the world with three gold medals in the Finnish capital, including the 100m title, a race Maswanganyi has watched a couple of times, obviously focusing on one of the three red-clad Americans. Lewis led a USA sweep in the dash when he won the first of his eight World Championship golds.
Drawing parallels with his celebrated coach has helped the Soweto-native feel at ease and become one of the star sprinters of the season.
He moved to the U.S. to pursue a sporting career and a finance degree at the University of Houston at the end of 2019.
He immediately forged a relationship with Lewis that supersedes what athletes and coaches normally share.
And in less than three years, the former rugby player has become one of the fastest sprinters in the world.
“He told me, ‘you don't want to just come in and run fast and be forgotten. We're going to build a brand and invest in ourselves and have something special.'
"In the sense that we are going to have our story told. It's all about building a legacy, being a person outside the sport,” he recalls of the initial conversations with Lewis after completing his high school in Pretoria, near Johannesburg.
“We were able to connect with that because I had that same vision. I want to be bigger than the sport. I don't want track to define me. I just want track to be something I do, and he was a godfather of that…we feel like track needs a unique story and how best than me being alongside him?”
“Since then, he has been the great mentor that he is. He's there for me on and off the field... He's helped me deal with my personal problems.”
Shaun Maswanganyi's 2021 breakout season at the Tokyo Olympics and the challenging period after
Last season was especially difficult for the 2019 African junior 200m champion.
After achieving a double qualification for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, held in 2021, where he reached the semi-finals of both the men's 100m and 200m, he had high targets set for his World Championships debut in Oregon.
But a hamstring injury ended his campaign in the 200m heats.
All this coming against the backdrop of difficult personal challenges that deeply affected him.
His older brother was shot dead, aged 29, and he also had to deal with the loss of his grandmother. During this dark period, 'Coach Carl’ became more than a trainer.
“He’s more than a coach to me. I feel like that connection, that's a bond that carried me during my roughest times in my college years and my best times as well," he tells Olympics.com.
“I look at the success I've had under him, and he's really nurtured me and has developed me.”
South African sprinter Shaun Maswanganyi.
Under the guidance of his coach and his family, the 2023 World Universiade 100m silver medallist managed to pick himself up and hit a career high this year “with amazing performances”.
After three sub 10s and sub 20s this year, the versatile athlete who does both short sprints and the long jumps like his coach, has rediscovered his reason for running again.
In high school, he was unmatched as a rugby winger and played basketball and cricket, sporting passions ignited by his late brother. But it was his high school athletics coach – former South African long jumper Yaw Fosu-Amoah - who convinced him to focus on track when he turned 15.
“Then I was really succeeding in that. I had some rough patches in high school, but track was kind of like my backbone, and it kept me altogether.
"When the end of high school came, and I wanted to make that transition into university, track was [what] was going to allow me to not only balance life outside of track, but also give me options, because now I can study in the U.S. get a quality degree and balance sport at the same time, which is very hard in South Africa. It’s always about capitalizing on whatever opportunities you have, which as Africans, are very limited.”
Shaun Maswanganyi on why he’s aiming for more glory in Budapest, “This is my redemption year”
The 2023 NCAA Championship 100m bronze medallist is now keen on exploiting his speed and asserting himself in a race that has always been at a touching distance for Africans.
No African man has won a gold medal in the 100m and 200m at the Olympics or World Championships.
“But now the fact that there's so many Africans coming in, it just shows how much talent Africa really has,” reckons the sprinter, a pleasant conversationalist.
He is enjoying the spotlight that comes with being one of the three fastest African men this season, who could upstage the world’s best at the newly constructed National Athletics Centre in Budapest.
“People always have expectations for you, but at the end of the day, you know I need to perform. I'm always a competitor.”
He carries on, on his preview of the men’s 100m that begins on Saturday (August 19), the opening day of the 2023 worlds.
“The stakes are high this year. And when there's no clear favourite, I feel like it makes the championship even more interesting, because you never know who's gonna surprise or shock you in the heats or in the semi-final, the finals. I think it's the moments we look forward to as competitors. I'm just excited. I can't wait to run on Saturday, then semi-finals and finals on Sunday. The plan is always to go for gold.”
He has high targets in Budapest, where he will also compete in the 4x100m relay, the perfect dress rehearsal for his second Olympics in Paris 2024.
“It's a kind of like a redemption year for me, especially after the good campaign in Tokyo.
"With world champs, we have milestones to reach because we know Paris is going to be the pinnacle. I still feel like I want to compete with Carl (Lewis) in terms of gold medals and so forth, because I'm always going to be the best. He knows how motivated I am. I told him, ‘Coach, even though my first Olympics wasn't too good, I still have three more to make it out’.”