As Botswana’s great track hope ahead of the 2024 Olympics, Letsile Tebogo has lofty ambitions for Africa.

Yet the 20-year-old, who claimed two medals at the World Championships last year, is keeping a cool head as his own focus this year shifts towards the Paris Games, which begin on 26 July.

“I don’t have any goals for the Olympics because I haven’t thought about what will happen,” Tebogo told Newsday on the BBC World Service.

“I need to sit down and see, and then set the goals. I will then announce my goals if I feel like it.”

Part of the reason for Tebogo’s reticence is the fact he is representing a country that has only won two medals since it first competed in the Olympics in 1980 – with neither of them gold.

Nijel Amos claimed the southern African nation’s first Olympic medal in 2012, winning silver in the men’s 800m.

Nine years later, the quartet of Isaac Makwala, Bayapo Ndori, Zibane Ngozi and Baboloki Thebe won men’s 4x400m relay bronze at the delayed 2020 Games in Tokyo.

Now attention has turned to Tebogo, and the expectation on his shoulders is justified.

A two-time 100m champion at world Under-20 level, where he also picked up two silver medals over 200m in 2021 and 2022, he is starting to translate his success on to the senior stage.

Tebogo took silver over the shorter distance at the Worlds in Hungary last August, and followed that up with bronze in the 200m.