On the 14th of August, a 17-year old record was smashed at the Rio Olympics 400m track event. A South African athlete, Wayde Van Niekerk won the 400m men's event in a world record time of 43.03 seconds, breaking United States' Michael Johnson's record of 43.18 seconds set in 1999.

Wayde was born in Cape Town, prematurely at 29 weeks on the 15th of July, 1992 to Odessa Swarts. His birth weight was just a little over 1 kg, and was potentially going to live with disabilities according to the doctors. Incidentally, Odessa Swarts was herself an athletic champion in her province. Swarts set provincial records in both the 100m and 200m, while growing up under the tyrannical apartheid regime. By the time South Africa became a democratic nation, Swarts had six records to her name, at the provincial and national levels, according to athleticsclipboard.co.za.

Against all odds, Wayde Van Niekerk attained prominence at the South African Athletics Championships in 2011, winning the 200m race, in 20.57 seconds. Fast forward to 2014, the 25 year old won a silver medal at the 400m in Glasgow at the Commonwealth games. He became a world champion in 2015, winning a gold medal in the 400m event at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.
Some of his notable records are:

· First South African athlete to win an Olympic gold medal on the track since 1928
· The first athlete ever to complete the 100 meters under 10 seconds (9.96s in 2016 ) the 200m under 20 seconds (19.94s in 2015) and the 400m (43.03s in 2016) under 44 seconds.
· The first man to win the 400m Olympic gold medal from Lane 8 since 1924
· The 107th athlete to break the 10-second barrier in the 100m with his personal best of 9.96 seconds on the 12th of March, 2016.
Earlier this year, world's fastest man, Usain Bolt, described Wayde Van Niekerk as ‘cool person'.
Congratulations to South Africa's 'King of Cool’, for his outstanding feat at the Olympics.

For more details :
http://www.nkenu.com/2016/08/introducing-new-400m-world-record.html