Nineteen-year-old Bradley Nkoana, of South Africa, won silver as part of the men’s 4-by-100-meter relay team in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.
It’s the first Olympics for the sprinter, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Nkoana raced in the third leg of the relay race on the Stade de France’s purple track. In the qualifying heat on Aug. 8, the team was second behind the team from the USA, with a time of 37.94 seconds, a season’s best. The top three teams from each heat and the next two fastest advanced to the finals. In the finals the next day, on Aug. 9, the team was in fourth and fifth at the hand-offs, with the final runner pulling into second place. Their time of 37.57 seconds was an area record.
The seven teams were within two tenths of a second in the tightly contested race where it appeared four runners crossed the finish line at almost the same time. As the racers were handing off the last runners, the announcers said “this is anybody’s” race. The team from Canada won gold, with a time of 37.50 seconds. Great Britain was third with a time of 37.61 seconds.
The team posed with a South African flag as they celebrated after the race. It’s the first medal for the country in the 4-by-100-meter relay. South Africa sent relay teams in 2021 to Tokyo, Japan, and in 2008 to Beijing, China, and decades earlier in 1936 in Germany, in 1924 in France and in 1920 in Belgium. The South African team was sixth in the 2022 world championships in Eugene, Oregon, according to Olympics.com. The South African team was first in the 2001 world championships in Edmonton, Alberta.
In Paris, the word “fun” was written on an armband Nkoana wore during the race.
“Even if you feel like you are the youngest, to the world you are someone and you have value. So don’t limit yourself and anything is possible. Just run your heart out and have fun. That’s always important — just have fun,” he wrote on Instagram. In the World U20 championships in Lima, Peru, he won bronze in the men’s 100-meters with a time of 10.26 seconds. The gold-medal winner was his Paris teammate, Bayanda Walaza.
In an interview after the race, Nkoana was asked what he was grateful for.
“I’m really grateful for God showing me the light and keeping me patient. I’m also grateful for the people that supported me, had my back and never gave up on me,” he said.
He is a student at North-West University’s High-Performance Institute of Sport in Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa.
More than a dozen athletes with ties to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints competed in the Paris Olympics and eight in the Paralympics.
