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Botswana's sprint sensation Lestile Tebogo met Pope Francis in Vatican City on Wednesday just weeks after becoming Olympic champion.
Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo has this afternoon met Pope Francis in Vatican City before the Wanda Diamond League in Rome on Friday.
The meeting at the Vatican marked a poignant moment for the 200m Olympic gold medalist as he sought spiritual solace in a time of personal grief and triumph.
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Accompanied by his coach, Dose Mosimanyane, Tebogo shared a deeply personal artifact with the Pope—the shoes he wore during his gold medal win at the Paris Olympics engraved with the initials and birthdate of his late mother Elizabeth Seratiwa who passed away on May 18th last year.
These shoes symbolizing his journey and loss were blessed by Pope Francis in a moving ceremony.
"Seeing me win the Olympic gold medal, maybe many people will have gone to look on the maps where Botswana is located and reading on my shoes the initials of my sister's name and her date of birth I hope that someone will have prayed for her," said Tebogo as per Diamond League portal.
Tebogo’s relationship with his sport began under humble circumstances, running barefoot in local races before wearing his first pair of shoes in 2020—a pivotal year when he won the national championships and made the decision to focus solely on athletics, setting aside his football aspirations.
"Running without shoes in Africa and in poor regions of the world is normal," added Tebogo.
"I ran my first races in my uncle's pants. I hope my victories in the 100 and 200 meters will bring attention to Botswana and Africa in general. It is significant that Africans are not seen only as long-distance runners."
The emotional weight of his meeting with the Pope was particularly poignant as Tebogo remembered his mother, a woman of faith whose death from breast cancer nearly drove him to abandon his sports career.
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Instead, her memory fueled his drive to win Olympic gold, not only for himself but for his family, especially his 12-year-old sister.
"I am sure that my mother is happy, she was a woman of faith. When she died of breast cancer after a long battle, I thought about giving up sports. Now I have won the Games for and with my mother. For my sister, who is 12 years old, and for me she was and is everything! She gave us the opportunity to grow despite the context in which we were born: the village of Kanye that no one knows where it is," Tebogo shared, his voice laden with emotion.
Tebogo became the first African to win the Olympic 200m event with a stunning time of 19.46 seconds making him the fifth-fastest man in history over the distance.
"I was a hyperactive child, without hope: sports and my mother's infinite love allowed me to fulfill myself in life, up to the Olympic gold. But all children in Africa should have these opportunities."
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