Paris 2024 Olympics: Botswana gets half-day holiday to welcome gold medallist Letsile Tebogo

President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared Tuesday afternoon a holiday as Botswana geared up to welcome home sprinter Letsile Tebogo and his 200m gold medal, a first for the southern African country.

Botswana’s Olympic team was due to return on Tuesday with Tebogo’s gold as well as silver in the men’s 4x400m relay, boosting the country’s total Olympic medal tally to four.

The 21-year-old became the first African to win the men’s 200m, in an African record time of 19.46sec, when he powered past Americans Kenny Bednarek and Noah Lyles in Paris on August 8.

Masisi had already granted the country of 2.3 million people a half-day holiday on August 9 to celebrate the triumph.

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The president will meet the Olympic team at the airport, a government statement said.

Tebogo is only the second African athlete to win an Olympic medal in the men’s 200m after Namibian Frankie Fredericks took silver in Atlanta in 1996.

Botswana won their first Olympic medal at the 2012 London Games when Nijel Amos took silver in the 800m. Its men’s 4x400m relay team took bronze at Tokyo 2020.