Letsile Tebogo says athletics saved him from life of crime

PARIS: Olympic 200m champion Letsile Tebogo said on Wednesday he could have become a delinquent if the sport of athletics had not given him a focus.

Tebogo, who stunned the field in Paris last year to become Botswana’s first Olympic gold medalist in any sport, said he would take the lessons he learned from his childhood into his new role as a global ambassador for the Kids Athletics scheme.

“Sport has really helped me a lot because I think without sport ... probably I would be a criminal by now,” 21-year-old Tebogo told reporters on a video conference call.

“In the neighborhood where I grew up there were a lot of criminals, it was the only way to survive.

“But then with sport I knew I had to go to school and with training you are tired. You don’t have time to roam the streets and go into people’s houses,” he added.

“So once I discovered that I tried to pull in a few friends of mine ... and now they are playing football.

“We always talk about if this didn’t work out, where would we be?“

The Kids Athletics program, overseen by World Athletics and targeted at children aged four to 14, is focused on maximizing participation and enjoyment through modified games and competitions based on track and field events.

Tebogo, who after the call took part in a relay event with around 1,000 children on the same grounds in Botswana where he used to train as a boy, recalled that he initially preferred football.

“I was more of a footballer, a left-winger. The teachers at my primary school forced me into athletics,” he said.

“(Athletics) wasn’t that popular in Botswana back then, until the Commonwealth Games 2018.

“From my side I just wanted to see where it would take me. Athletics was just a part-time thing for me.”

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