Letsile Tebogo is very well-known on the track and field scene. The one thing he loved, though, was having Seratiwa, his mother, support him from the stands. Unfortunately, on May 19, his mother passed away following a brief illness. The Olympian, outwardly calm, is torn up inside by his painful loss.
Letsile was not with her mother when she took her last breath. He was in Italy preparing for the Eugene Diamond League. He got the news on the internet, making it more difficult for him to process and accept.
He says in a note: “I’ve been trying to find myself again, but it’s hard. It’s hard because you were a huge part of my life.” His mother was a former athlete and they shared their passion towards sports. “Not having you here is so painful. I’m just not me anymore,” he added.
However, the sprinter managed to pay tribute to his mother in another way. On August 8, in the middle of a packed field for the 200-metre finals, his focus was on getting the Olympic gold. He became the Olympic champion with his time of 19.46 seconds. He took off his shoe and held it up to the camera following his historic victory. In a touching remembrance of the most significant woman in his life, the shoe displayed his mother’s birthdate, 23-12-1980.
The athlete declared: “I believe she could be one of the happiest people on the planet because she believed in me, and I had so much doubt for myself.”
Source: EssentiallySports