For Olympic 200-meter champion Letsile Tebogo, next week’s trip to the Hungarian capital of Budapest for the first-ever Ultimate Athletics Championships is far more than just another stop on the global track and field circuit. It is a return to the city that launched his international career, and a bittersweet journey back to the place where his mother watched him make history for Botswana.
Three years ago, 20-year-old Tebogo stepped onto the track at Budapest’s 2023 World Athletics Championships for his first senior global competition, when his mother Seratiwa surprised him by making the trip to watch him compete. That outing became a landmark moment for both Tebogo and his home nation: he claimed silver in the 100m and bronze in the 200m, becoming the first male athlete from Botswana to win World Championship medals, and the first African man ever to reach the 100m podium at the event. Seratiwa, who shared an extraordinarily close bond with her son that she once described as more like a “brother and sister relationship,” told BBC Sport Africa at the time that she was overflowing with pride for his achievement.
This time, however, Seratiwa will not be in the stands to cheer him on. She passed away in May 2024 after a sudden, short illness, and Tebogo has opened up about the difficulty of returning to the city that holds so many shared memories without her. “I haven’t really looked into the fact that I’m going now to Budapest without my mom,” he said. “It’s just been a bumpy ride having to think about it and having to continue with the grind.”
Even amid the grief, Tebogo says the city remains a source of strength, a place where he can carry his mother’s memory forward as he competes. He believes her spirit stays with him, pushing him to give every race his all even on days when stepping away feels like an option. “She pushes me to give my absolute best and I believe the memories that we had in Budapest, they will still come again,” he said.
In the years since that breakthrough 2023 World Championships, Tebogo has only scaled greater heights. In 2024, he made history once again as he won the 200m title at the Paris Olympic Games, becoming Botswana’s first ever Olympic gold medalist. He carried his mother’s legacy with him that day, marking her initials onto both his running shoes and his fingernails as a quiet tribute. Earlier this year in May, he also helped lead Botswana to 4x400m gold at the World Relays, hosted on his home soil in Gaborone, and has notched up 200m wins at top-tier Diamond League events in Oslo and Lausanne this season.
The Ultimate Championships, the new biennial event hosted in Budapest from September 11 to 13, was created to cap off the track and field season by bringing together the very best performers from across the globe to determine the year’s undisputed best. The inaugural edition boasts a total $10 million prize pool, the largest single-event prize pot in track and field history according to organizers World Athletics, with individual gold medalists set to take home $150,000 each. Tebogo enters the competition as one of the sport’s biggest young stars and a clear favorite to contend in the men’s 200m.
Beyond his own race, Tebogo will take on another role at the event: he is serving as a team captain for the Kids’ Athletics Ultimate Challenge, an event that invites young athletes from across Budapest to take part in fun developmental activities at the Gyula Zsivotzky National Athletics Centre the day before the main competition kicks off. The role gives him a chance to pass on the core lessons he has learned throughout his rapid rise from young hopeful to global champion.
For the next generation of athletes, Tebogo highlights two key values he hopes to instill: accountability and unwavering sportsmanship. “I believe firstly you should start with accountability,” he explained. “Think about your preparation, how you want your journey or your season to be, and then also think of unwavering sportsmanship. I would love them to have that unwavering sportsmanship, so that they can share lanes, they can cheer for one another.”
For Tebogo, this trip to Budapest is about more than competing for another major title. It is about honoring the woman who supported him from his earliest days, celebrating the shared memories that made him the athlete he is today, and chasing new glory while carrying her spirit with him every step of the way.