Letsile Tebogo Weighs In on Usain Bolt’s Record and Whether He Can Break It

• Letsile Tebogo has been backed to break Usain Bolt's 15-year 200m world record after his gold medal at the Paris Olympics
• The Botswana star set the fifth-fastest time in history but needs significant improvement to break Bolt's 19.19 record
• The 21-year-old was recently asked about the world record, and he gave a timeline of when he could smash it

Letsile Tebogo is still on top of the world after defeating Noah Lyles to win the gold medal in the men's 200m at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The Botswana sprinter bounced back with a comfortable win at the Lausanne Diamond League, and some have tipped him to take down Bolt's world record. The youngster spoke about the possibility of smashing the 15-year world record.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Tebogo clocked 19.46 seconds, the fifth fastest time ever. He defeated Lyles, who was the favourite.

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At the Lausanne Diamond League, he defeated Fred Kerley and Erriyon Knighton to win in 19.64 seconds. Tebogo also finished sixth in the 100m final in Paris, but many feel he is capable of breaking Bolt's record.

The retired Jamaican clocked 19.19 seconds at the 2009 World Athletics Championships. He also holds the 100m world record, set in Berlin.

Yohan Blake (19.26) and Noah Lyles (19.31) are the only athletes who have come close to breaking it. Bolt recently said he regrets not lowering the 200m record since it was his race.

Will Tebogo break Tebogo's record?

Speaking after the Lausanne Diamond League, Tebogo shared his views on the world record, per The Inside Lane.

"I see it but I don't want to put myself under pressure of trying to break the world record but if it comes, it will come eventually. We don't have to push it this year, we don't have to push it next year, probably when we are at 24, that's when we could attempt something like that, but I don't think it would take long looking at what I did today and what I did in the 200m final."

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Reactions to the video:

Here are some of the responses to the video.

@LillzTIL:

"Yep! He has a fantastic team behind him."

@KRMCF1234567:

"It will be great if he breaks the world record."

@jon_wells:

"He doesn’t have that top end speed like Noah I don’t see it happening."

@RichardOnsare1:

"This guy is a Champ!"

@ungumwendia:

"Go for it champ."

@FastNeal17:

"He still not even ran faster than Noah’s best time stop the cap."

@benarsen1886:

"I gave him 2028 but he might even do it earlier than I thought."

@lunatic_runner:

"He wants his legs to do the talking."

If he avoids injury, Tebogo has many chances to smash Bolt's record at some point in his career.

Tebogo opens up on his mother's passing

In a related report, Briefly News earlier reported on Letsile Tebogo narrating how the loss of his mother affected him before going forth to win two medals at the 2024 Olympic Games.

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The sprinter confirmed that he wasn't in Botswana when the incident happened and believed his athletics career was over.

Source: TUKO.co.ke