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The Most Famous

ATHLETES from Botswana

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This page contains a list of the greatest Motswana Athletes. The pantheon dataset contains 3,059 Athletes, 4 of which were born in Botswana. This makes Botswana the birth place of the 82nd most number of Athletes behind Venezuela and Mongolia.

Top 4

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Motswana Athletes of all time. This list of famous Motswana Athletes is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Isaac Makwala

1. Isaac Makwala (1985 - )

With an HPI of 27.15, Isaac Makwala is the most famous Motswana Athlete.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Isaac Makwala (born 24 September 1985) is a Botswana sprinter who specializes in the 400 metres.

Photo of Amantle Montsho

2. Amantle Montsho (1983 - )

With an HPI of 26.66, Amantle Montsho is the 2nd most famous Motswana Athlete.  Her biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Amantle Montsho (born July 4, 1983) is a female sprinter from Botswana who specializes in the 400 metres. She represented her country at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, reaching the final at the latter edition. She was the first woman to represent Botswana at the Olympics. She has also competed at the World Championships in Athletics and the IAAF World Indoor Championships, and is the former World Champion over the 400m, winning in a personal best time of 49.56 in Daegu. Montsho was suspended for two years for an anti-doping rule violation after she tested positive for methylhexaneamine at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.A two-time African Championships gold medallist over 400 m, she has also won titles in the event at the 2007 All-Africa Games, the 2010 IAAF Continental Cup and the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Her Commonwealth win made her Botswana's first-ever gold medallist of the games. Her personal best times are 11.60 seconds in the 100m, 22.89 seconds in the 200m, and 49.33 seconds in the 400m. She trains at the High Performance Training Centre in Dakar, Senegal, and She holds the national record for the 400 m both indoors and outdoors.

Photo of Nijel Amos

3. Nijel Amos (1994 - )

With an HPI of 23.54, Nijel Amos is the 3rd most famous Motswana Athlete.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Nijel Carlos Amilfitano Amos (born 15 March 1994) is a Botswana middle-distance runner who competes in the 800 metres. He won the silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics, which was Botswana's first ever Olympic medal. Amos claimed gold medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 All-Africa Games. At the African Championships in Athletics, he took golds in 2014, 2016 and 2018. He won the gold medal in his specialist event at the 2012 World Under-20 Championships. Amos is the Botswana record holder for the 800 m, his mark is also the world U20 record. He is a three-time Diamond League 800 m winner. On 12 July 2022, Amos was provisionally suspended from competition for testing positive for metabolite GW1516. On 3 May 2023, it was announced that he had received backdated three-year doping ban which would end on 11 July 2025.

Photo of Baboloki Thebe

4. Baboloki Thebe (1997 - )

With an HPI of 15.94, Baboloki Thebe is the 4th most famous Motswana Athlete.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Baboloki Tirelo Thebe (born 18 March 1997) is a Botswana track and field sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres. He was a silver medallist in the 200 metres at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. He reached the semi-finals at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics. He made a breakthrough in the 400 m in May 2016 with a run of 44.22 seconds, placing him third on the global seasonal lists and moving him into the all-time top 30 for the event. He competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics. His personal best in 400 meters is 44.02, which he ran in July 2017

Pantheon has 4 people classified as athletes born between 1983 and 1997. Of these 4, 4 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living athletes include Isaac Makwala, Amantle Montsho, and Nijel Amos. As of April 2022, 1 new athletes have been added to Pantheon including Baboloki Thebe.

Living Athletes

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Newly Added Athletes (2022)

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