Wayde Van Niekerk

Personal

Notable

Traits

South African track and field sprinter who competes in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He is the current world record holder, world champion and Olympic champion in the 400 metres. He is also the first person in history to run faster than 10 seconds for 100 metres, 20 seconds for 200 metres and 44 seconds for 400 metres. Van Niekerk was the silver medallist in the 400m at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and took bronze in the 4×400 metres relay at the 2013 Summer Universiade. He also represented South Africa at the 2013 and the 2015 Athletics World Championships. At the 2015 World Championships, he won the gold medal in the 400 metres. In the 2016 Olympic Games Men's 400m, he won the gold medal with a World Record time of 43.03 seconds (reaction time 0.181 s), beating the time of 43.18 seconds set by Michael Johnson during the 1999 World Championships in Athletics in Seville, Spain. He is a Christian, tweeting "Jesus Did It" and "GOD IS POWER" after setting the world record for the 400m. Wayde's recent Olympics win set off a racial debate after a tweet storm when Coloured South Africans celebrated his win by creating a hashtag #ColouredExcellence. Link to Wikipedia biography