Transcription
At the end of the 2024 season, at the Brussels Diamond League final, I got a chance to speak with Latil Tobo about how he's adjusting to life after winning the Olympic gold in the 200. This is what he said:
"Get into the hole and then just find something to keep me busy around the city. What? What's the F? Just get into the house and just not do anything, go out as much, you know, because I'm not a free human being these days. I'm just a superstar in my country, of which I don't like because I can't even go to the mall and just get something to eat for myself. I have to send somebody to do it. I think it also leads me to overthink so many things: why did I become this person? Why didn't I just choose another path? But I can't go back to my ways. I just have to stick with the weights and then just keep on going forward and see how I could overcome the whole situation that's there in my hands."
It was really interesting to hear him speak about becoming an overnight star, considering he's not only the first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in the 200, but he also became the first athlete in Botswana's history to stand on top of the podium at the Olympics in the 44 years since Botswana has been participating in the games.
The idea of Tobo going into the hole and not being able to go out to the grocery store or be out in public is kind of hard to grapple with for someone who's still just 21 years old. Barely four years ago, he was still a young and relatively unknown schoolboy who couldn't have imagined his talent would develop into what it is today.
After winning Olympic gold, Tobo received a literal hero's welcome home with a massive parade through the capital city of Gaborone, as well as a National Stadium filled to capacity to hear him speak and show appreciation for his country. This was just a few days after the Olympics in Paris.
Once the initial celebration was complete, he quickly returned to Europe to complete his season on the Diamond League circuit. Of the six post-Olympic meets that he competed in, I was able to catch up with him three times, including in Rome, Zurich, and the Brussels Diamond League final.
As I noted, he really opened up in Brussels about the pressure of becoming a larger-than-life figure back at home in Botswana, literally overnight. "I'm not a free human being these days. I'm just a superstar in my country, of which I don't like," he said. This is not easy for any athlete, let alone a young athlete like Tobo, and even more importantly, someone who was relatively quiet and reserved when it comes to conversations, interviews, and just dealing with the spotlight as a whole.
In a recent interview with Sean Mallister of Olympics.com, Tobo spoke about being quiet and literally letting his legs do the talking. He said, "Athletes are all different. There's the loud ones, there's the quiet ones. So I prefer being silent and just let the legs do the talking. I've always been a reserved person, so athletics won't change the person who I am. I believe silence is the way."
Look at the landscape of athletes we have right now in the sprints: guys like Noah, Fred, Lil Kenny, Kain, Oblique, Aani, Marcel, and a ton of other guys as well. Noah sticks out as the very loud, expressive, outgoing guy in the group, while the rest of them tend to be a lot more reserved, laid-back, and a bit more mysterious for the most part. Granted, you do have varying levels where Fred and Akani are generally pretty expressive, but then you have Kain, who's about as quiet as they come, aside from when he's screaming right before stepping on the line.
But Tobo fits right in the middle of that mold, where he's the youngest of the group and tends to let the spotlight go to others. Even when the world record talk comes up, he would prefer to be left out of it. "Take me out of that world record convo because I don't want that pressure to put on myself. So I let L speak about the world record and everybody wants to speak about it. I'm not part of that team."
Of course, he has his fair share of expressive moments. In 2022, at the World U20 Championships, he literally turned to his side and pointed at Enum from Jamaica before going on to break the U20 100-meter world record. Or even recently at the Rome Diamond League, where he celebrated crossing the line ahead of Christian Coleman and Fred Curley in that 100. But his general demeanor is staying calm and collected for the most part.
Circling back to becoming a national hero, this may not be the best situation for a quiet kid from a very humble background. The weight of your country on your shoulders, the idea of carrying the flag and representing millions of people every time you step on the track—that's not easy. I feel this is what he was getting at in our interview after the 200 meters at the Brussels Diamond League.
However, it seems in the time since then, things may have eased up a bit, and his country and community have really become more understanding of his space and time. Tobo says, "It's different in every country. When you get to my country, they understand, they know, and they feel when to just let me be. Then in other countries, they want to cringe or get that piece of you from everything you do. So it's all different in other countries."
After the Diamond League in Rome, I did a video saying that we shouldn't rush Tobo to become the face of the sport and should instead allow him to naturally grow into that lane if that's eventually where he falls. There's an aspect of that that I see here, where though he will always be a hero for his country, they seem to also acknowledge that we have to respect his space and time and let him be so he can continue to grow and develop as an athlete and ambassador for Botswana.
Tobo has been on the rise for years, dating back to 2021 and 2022 when he won the 100-meter dash at the World U20s both years. Even in 2023, he won silver and bronze in the 100 and 200, respectively, at the Budapest World Championships. But the 2024 Olympic season was arguably his true breakout, having not only won gold in the 200 and 100 meters but also anchoring Botswana's 4x4 to Olympic silver, breaking the 300-meter world record, and running a fast 400 early on in the season, getting a ton of comparisons to Usain Bolt—all of this in the midst of losing his mother directly in the middle of the outdoor season.
Though Botswana has been developing some talent over the years, the country is far from a powerhouse like the United States, Great Britain, or even Jamaica, where year after year you know you're going to get high-quality athletes who are guaranteed to show up on the world stage in various different events. Tobo said, "There's nothing that really makes us special when compared to the United States. But all I can say is that Botswana will take care of a gem perfectly more than the U.S. can because I believe the U.S. has got too many athletes. So even if there's a let today, tomorrow there will be the next one. In Botswana, you can't find the next."
That's how I concluded it. In the United States, the best of the best athletes rise to the top, but it's extremely hard to break out because the top five to the top ten is so saturated with world-class athletes, especially when talking about the sprints. Just look at the men's 100m and 200m this year: you've got Kendall Williams, Brandon Hickin, and PJ Austin in the 100, but then Kyrie King, Jaryan Stubs, and Lance Lang all in the 200. These are top guys in the world when talking about times, but they wouldn't get much love because it's so easy to get drowned out in the sea of American depth.
Again, though Botswana is on the rise, especially in the 400, Tobo is the only guy really holding down the 100 and 200 for his country. He has personal bests of 9.86 and 19.46 in the 100 and 200, respectively, while the next best guys hold times of 10.32 and 20.50, so not really even competitive globally at all.
I can't overstate how impressive it is to see an athlete like Tobo competing right now, and even more importantly, how he's representing Botswana and making his country proud. As I said, speaking to him at the end of the season in Brussels was very eye-opening to learn about the pressure he faced and how much his life has changed after winning Olympic gold.
But it does feel good to hear that things seem to have shifted a bit, and there's an appreciation for his time and space, which will ultimately allow him to become an even greater athlete than he already is today.
So let me know what you think about Tobo and his current talent, and what you think he might be capable of in the future. Be sure to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and as always, appreciate y'all and thanks for watching.