South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk won the gold medal in the Men’s 400m sprint event at the Rio Olympics. The sprinter finished the event with a world record timing of 43.03 seconds which helped him beat the timing of former record holder Michael Johnson who had finished the event with a timing of 43.18 seconds at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics in Spain.
However, there are a lot of interesting facts about the South African which are still unknown to the world. Here are the 10 things you did not know about the world record maker:
#1 Wayde van Niekerk has been competing in the 100m, 200m and 400m events since he took up competing at the international level. He is currently the world record holder, world champion as well as the Olympic champion in the 400 metres event. But the interesting fact about the athlete is that he is the first ever sprinter to run 100 metres in under 10 seconds, 200 metres in under 20 seconds and 400 metres in under 44 seconds. Van Niekerk had already clocked 19.94 seconds and 43.48sec in the 200 and 400m, and he timed 9.98sec in the 100m in Bloemfontein in March this year.
#2 The South African is not the only one in his family who can boast of having won a medal in Rio. Niekerk’s cousin, Cheslin Kolbe, has also won a medal at the Rio Olympics as the athlete won the bronze medal with the South African sevens rugby team earlier in the week. The sprinter, however, also had his family members in numbers at the Olympic Stadium on Monday when he broke the world record.
#3 The sprinter became the first world sprint champion from South Africa ever when he won the gold medal at the Beijing World Championships last year with a timing of just 43.48 seconds. His journey at such a young age has seen him conquer glory at three places as he started his career from Cape Town in his homeland, then won in Beijing and now in Rio. The 24-year old was followed by LaShawn Merritt in second and 2012 London champion Kirani James in third in China but the two interchanged their positions in Rio.
#4 Van Niekerk is known to have been coached by a 74-year old great-grandmother, Ans Botha whom the sprinter met three years ago. He has since been training with the lady and that move has paid great dividends for the athlete. The athlete spoke about his coach, “She’s an amazing woman. She has played a huge role in who I am today and kept me very disciplined and very focused on the role and who I need to be. I’m very grateful my coach has pushed me to the limit. Anything is possible. I’m just grateful I can trust in her work.”
He has achieved a lot in his three years since the two joined forces. However, the sprinter has also been working with Usain Bolt’s coach Glen Mills in Jamaica whom he had met in the run-up to Rio 2016.
#5 The 24-year old is also the silver medalist from the 400m event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow. The sprinter has also won the bronze medal in the 4x400 metres relay at the 2013 Summer Universiade. His achievements also include winning two gold medals for South Africa at the 2016 African Championships where he won in the 200m and 4x100 metres relay events.
#6 The quick athlete has been born and raised in the city of Cape Town where he started training for the sport since a young age. However, he did not leave his studies for the sport and always gave time to his studies. He attended his local college and went on for higher studies, choosing marketing as his main subject at the University of the Free State.
#7 Van Niekerk is a proud South African and was given the honour of being the flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympic Games. The athlete has engraved his name in gold in the record books of the sprinting world and is considered as one of the greatest athletes that South Africa has ever produced. However, what should be noted is Niekerk’s age which is only 24 and to be the flag bearer at such a young age is a huge achievement for any athlete.
#8 The sprinter won his 400m sprint at the Olympic Games in Rio on Sunday and was very happy with his world record but one more thing that the sprinter revealed was that he is a Liverpool fan. The South African followed his incredible gold medal achievement by telling the Olympic World Service that he was very happy after his victory also because Liverpool had won their opening day fixture against Arsenal.
The sprinter said, “I watched the Liverpool match before, I was losing my mind because it was a tight match. We got the win. My brother is an Arsenal fan. Now I've got the world record and Liverpool beat Arsenal.”
#9 When Michael Johnson had created the world record 17 years ago of running 400 metres in just 43.18 seconds at the 1999 World Championships in Athletics in Spain, nobody had imagined that another sprinter in the world would better that timing, an athlete from South Africa was never expected to win a gold medal, let alone creating a record. But Van Niekerk made sure that he proved everyone wrong with his record-breaking win in Rio. The sprinter finished 0.15 seconds faster than what Johnson had run in 1999.
#10 The impressive run was so impressive that even Michael Johnson himself had praises for the sprinter. The American had commented for the BBC, “Oh my God! From lane eight, a world record. He took it out so quick. I have never seen anything from 200 to 400 like that. That was a massacre from Wayde van Niekerk. He just put those guys away."
