In continuation of our series on our Top 10 African Male Athletes in 2024, we now bring you the concluding part which features athletes ranked number 5 to 1. You can read the first part of the story here.
5. Tamirat Tola
Eight years ago, Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola was competing fully on track, and he enjoyed success with an Olympic 10,000m Bronze medal to show for it. Since then, he moved on to fully running road races and has been nothing short of brilliant.
In 2023, he won his first marathon majors in New York after previous 3rd place finishes in London the same year and Tokyo the year before. While he didn’t get off to such a great start in 2024, only managing 7th at the Ras Al Khaimah Half Marathon in Dubai and a troubling Did Not Finish (DNF) next to his name in what was to be his first marathon race of the year in London, he was selected as a substitute on the Ethiopian squad for the Paris Olympic Games.
The substitute would go on to become Olympic marathon Champion after he was asked to fill in for an injured Sisay Lemma who held down one of the three spots, just few days before the marathon event.
He stunned a stacked field, winning GOLD on what might be the most brutal marathon course in the history of the Olympics and breaking the Olympic Record in 2:06:06 while at it. Tola also became the first Ethiopian to win the Olympic marathon since 2000.
4. Joshua Cheptegei
As with his most recent seasons, it was hard to see Joshua Cheptegei winning Olympic GOLD in 2024, even though he was a man who wasn’t lacking in global titles. There was no indication from his performances that he was anywhere near what he would eventually produce in Paris.
He opened up his season at the USATF Grand Prix in Los Angeles, placing 3rd over 5000m in 12:52.38, followed by a 9th place finish at the Oslo Diamond League. However, he competed in Paris with the same grit that has carried him to three world titles and two World Records (WR) in the 5000m and 10000m.
At the end of the first day of in-stadium Athletics, he ran the race of his life, timing his kick to perfection from about 500m out to win one of the titles that has so far eluded him – Olympic 10000m GOLD! Cheptegei broke the Olympic Record (OR) with a time of 26:43.14, taking down the previous mark set in 2008 by Kenenisa Bekele, the man whom he succeeded as WR holder. The race took such a heavy toll on him that he had to pass on defending his 5000m title. He finished off the year with the half marathon in New Delhi, India, which he won in 59:46.
3. Soufiane El Bakkali
Soufiane El Bakkali is sporting royalty in Morocco, as he should be, seeing as he’s been the face of the sport for the country over the past few years, winning multiple global GOLDS.
However, his 2024 season didn’t start off on the best note. El Bakkali was supposed to open up his season at the Doha Diamond League, but unfortunately sustained an injury in his final preparations for the season’s commencement. This put him out of training for at least two months.
He attempted a return on his homefront at the Marrakech Diamond League and notched a confidence-boosting win, even though evidently, he was out of shape. He struggled a lot in that race and only won by the skin of his teeth. It also didn’t help that this was his one and only race before Paris.
Come Paris, El Bakkali did the unthinkable, defeating one of the highest quality steeplechase fields assembled in recent times to win GOLD! He defended his title from Tokyo, becoming the first man since 1936 to reach that milestone.
In Tokyo, his win had made him the first non-Kenyan to win the 3000m Steeplechase since 2000. He won his next Diamond League race in Chorzow and closed the year with a 2nd place finish in Brussels, marking his first loss over the distance since 2021.
2. Emmanuel Wanyonyi
In 2024, Emmanuel Wanyonyi carried the men’s 800m in ways people never thought was possible since the reign of David Rudisha. To signal intent, he broke the World Road Mile Record in Herzogenaurach, Germany, with a time of 3:54.6.
After victories at the Kip Keino Classic and the Rabat Diamond League, he took a huge chunk off his Personal Best (PB), clocking an astonishing 1:41.70, which put him in rarefied air on the history books.
Despite improving measurably at the Paris Diamond League about a month later, running 1:41.58, he was beaten into second place by Gabriel Tual. This loss made things interesting in the event, with the addition of World Champion Marco Arop and Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati who had been on a rampage on the Diamond League circuit, with relentless wins.
Wanyonyi showed that he wasn’t going to be beaten a second time in Paris, nor play second fiddle in a way that saw him get beaten at the 2023 World Championships. He took things in stride in the rounds and led from start to finish in the final.
In a year that produced many of history’s fastest times, he became the youngest ever winner of the event in Olympic history, leading a race of unprecedented depth in 1:41.19. He would further improve on his time less than two weeks after in Lausanne where he ran 1:41.11 to become joint second fastest man in history, before winning his second Diamond League trophy in Brussels.
1. Letsile Tebogo
Botswana’s pride, Letsile Tebogo, proved himself as Africa’s finest sprinter in 2024, building on his historic achievement as the continent’s first World Championships medallist in the men’s 100m the year prior. His meteoric rise has been fuelled by his versatility, seamlessly competing with the world’s best across distances from 100m to 400m.
Tebogo’s season began in spectacular fashion in South Africa, where he shattered the world 300m best at the Simbine Curro Classic Shoot-Out with a time of 30.69, erasing Wayde van Niekerk’s previous mark of 30.81 set in 2017. Shortly after, he clocked an impressive 44.29s in the 400m, a performance that till the end of the season, stood among the year’s fastest globally.
In The Bahamas, Tebogo anchored Botswana to GOLD in the men’s 4x400m at the World Relays, clocking 2:59.11, making Botswana only the second African country, after Nigeria, to win a sprint relay title at the event, securing their spot at the Paris Olympics.
However, Tebogo’s journey took an emotional turn when he lost his mother to a brief illness just a day after competing in Los Angeles. The devastating loss led him to step away from the track temporarily, but his return over a month later was nothing short of remarkable.
At the Paris Olympics, Tebogo made history as Botswana’s first Olympic champion in any sport. He stormed to victory in the men’s 200m final, defeating Kenny Bednarek and 100m champion Noah Lyles with a dazzling African Record (AR) of 19.46s, a performance that elevated him to fifth on the world all-time list.
Tebogo also delivered an unforgettable anchor leg in the men’s 4x400m relay, clocking a blistering 43.03 split—the second fastest in history—and leading Botswana to Silver in a new African Record of 2:54.53. The time propelled Botswana to second on the all-time list in the event.
Despite limited training in the latter part of the year, Tebogo amassed four Diamond League victories and finished 2nd in the 200m final in Brussels.
