Michael Johnson advises 20-year-old Letsile Tebogo to take up 100m & 200m at Paris Olympics despite world-leading 400m run

Olympic legend Michael Johnson recently shared advice for Botswana sprinter Letsile Tebogo ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics. He encouraged the 20-year-old to take the 100m and 200m races as his participating events in the upcoming championship in July.

Tebogo bagged the silver and bronze medals in the 100m and 200m races, respectively, at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. He was the youngest athlete to give neck-to-neck competition to the reigning world champion Noah Lyles.

At the U-20 World Athletics Championships, the Botswana athlete won gold and silver medals in the 100m and 200m races in 2021 and 2022, respectively. He was also the youngest-ever champion of the 200m event at the 2022 African Championships, held in Saint Pierre.

Despite having an impressive record in the 100m and 200m races, Tebogo recently stepped out of his comfort zone. He competed in the 400m race at the ASA Athletics Grand Prix in South Africa, running an impressive world-leading timing of 44.29s, improving his previous best time of 44.75s.

Although the youngster delivered a promising performance in the 400m race, legend Michael Johnson had a different advice for him. He believed that switching to the 400m event months before the Olympics may be a “foolish” idea.

Johnson shared on his X (formerly known as Twitter) handle:

"100/200 or 200/400 double? Already a 100/200 world champs medalist, maybe foolish to switch in an Olympic year. Men’s 400 a bit weak recently but his training must change to run even low 44 in a final after rounds. At only 20, plenty of time to move to 400. 100/200 for Paris."

Post-championship, the Botswana athlete had posted a picture of himself indicating his 400m participation was to check his speed. The athlete will next compete at the Diamond League to prepare well for the championship in July.

Letsile Tebogo has not made any official statement as of now about competing in the 400m race at the Paris Olympics 2024.

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Letsile Tebogo clocked a 300m World Best last month

Letsile Tebogo at 200m race at Diamond League 2023

On February 17, 2024, Letsile Tebogo, impressed fans by running the fastest-ever timing in the 300m race at the Simbine Curro Classic Shoot-Out in Pretoria. The Botswana athlete ran a gold-clinching 30.69s, shedding off 0.12s from world record holder Wayde van Niekerk’s 30.81 set in Ostrava in 2017.

The 20-year-old left behind his competitors Gardeo Isaacs (31.91s) and Bayapo Ndori (31.95s) to win by a significant margin.

After the championship, Tebogo thanked his “brother” Van Niekerk for pushing him to aim for bigger things. Moreover, the athlete also admitted that he was yet to confirm his goals for his debut at the Paris Olympics 2024 (via Times Live).