Wayde van Niekerk

At the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, South African track and field athlete Wayde van Niekerk competed in his first international junior competition. Van Niekerk participated in the competition’s 200-meter race and placed fourth with a personal-best time of 21.02 seconds. Furthermore, he competed in the 4x100m relay heats with his national team, running alongside Gideon Trotter and other South African competitors.

Wayde van Niekerk didn’t make his senior debut until the 2011 South African Athletics Championships, when he won the 200-meter gold in a personal-best time of 20.57 seconds. After capturing his second national championship of his career over 400 meters in 2013 with a time under 46 seconds, Van Niekerk started to focus on the distance. He then won the IAAF Meeting de Dakar before finishing second to the then Olympic champion Kirani James at the Golden Spike Ostrava, lowering his personal best time to 45.09 seconds.

In April 2014, Van Niekerk raced his first sub-45-second race, captured the national championship, and climbed to the top of the world rankings. In a time of 43.48 seconds, he took home the gold medal at the 2015 World Championships, ranking him as the fourth-fastest runner in history. In March 2016, he also broke three barriers: the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters, the 20-second barrier in the 200 meters, and the 44-second barrier in the 400 meters. Van Niekerk carried the South African flag and earned a spot in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

He shattered Michael Johnson’s 1999 world record for the 400-meter race by finishing in 43.03 seconds to win the gold medal. He also created history by becoming the first athlete to win the 400-meter event at the Olympic or world championships from lane 8, which is usually seen as a disadvantage owing to the staggered start. At the 2017 World Championships in Athletics in London on August 8, Van Niekerk successfully defended his 400-meter world championship with a time of 43.98 seconds. 

On October 31, 2017, he tore his anterior cruciate ligament while participating in a celebrity-sponsored rugby match sponsored by FC soccer, which temporarily put an end to his career. He was unable to have a substantial influence in the following years due to his career being hampered by injuries. Van Niekerk made a comeback to the track in 2023, winning his fifth national title on April 1 at the South African Athletics Championships. In the finals, he defeated Lythe Pillay, the U20 world champion, and recorded 44.17 seconds in his signature event.

Wayde Van Niekerk was born on July 15, 1992, in Kraaifontein, near Cape Town, to Wayne van Niekerk and sprinter Odessa Swarts. When he and his mother moved to Bloemfontein in 2005, Van Niekerk attended Bellville Primary and Simonsberg Primary. He first attended Grey College there before continuing on to the University of the Free State to study marketing. Chesney Campbell and Van Niekerk were wed on October 29, 2017. Van Niekerk’s biological parents are separated, and as of 2016, he resided in Bloemfontein with his mother Odessa Swarts and stepfather Steven Swarts. Kayla Swarts, his sister, is also a professional hockey player.