Botswana Fills Massive Stadium to Welcome Home 200-Meter Gold Medalist Letsile Tebogo

Tebogo won the country's first ever gold medal.

Botswana's Letsile Tebogo holds his country's flag up after winning the gold medal during the 200-meter final at the 2024 Paris Olympics. / Simon Bruty/Sports Illustrated

Botswana couldn't be prouder of their Olympians, especially sprinter Letsile Tebogo.

Tebogo, who won gold in the 200-meter race over Americans Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles at the Paris Olympics last week, returned to his home country on Tuesday and was greeted by thousands of fans cheering him on at National Stadium in the capital of Gaborone.

His gold medal win was the first in Botswana's history for any Olympic sport. He also broke an African record with his time of 19.46 seconds in the race. Tebogo held the previous continental record.

Tebogo was paraded around on a bus along the track while around 30,000 proud fans waved the Botswana flag.

BREAKING: Botswana filled their biggest stadium to welcome back sprinter Letsile Tebogo and their #Olympics team pic.twitter.com/wQSbSI7reZ

— Larry Madowo (@LarryMadowo) August 13, 2024

Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi granted Tuesday as a half-day holiday for people to have the opportunity to celebrate Tebogo and his accomplishment of winning the country's first gold medal.

Tebogo's 4x400m relay team also captured a silver medal in Paris. Botswana has only won four Olympic medals in its history, with two of them being from Tebogo this year.