Motsapi Moorosi

Motsapi Moorosi (4 May 1945 – 8 February 2013) was a Mosotho sprinter. He was the first person to compete for Lesotho at the Summer Olympics, competing in the men's 100 metres and 200 metres at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He later served as a coach.

Biography Moorosi was born on 4 May 1945 in Springs, South Africa, to a Basotho family. His parents, from Lesotho worked as laborers in South Africa. In South Africa, Moorosi worked as a welfare officer at a gold mine in Orange Free State. He held residency rights in Lesotho due to his family and owned a Lesotho passport, and eventually he moved there in 1971. CNN later described him as "A humble young man with an easy smile and a ready laugh," as well as his name being "synonymous with speed". He ran his personal best time of 10.2 seconds in the 100 metres twice. and the men's 200 metres, where he reached the quarterfinals, but advanced no further with a time of 20.9. A picture of him competing alongside Su Wen-ho, Edwin Roberts and Valeriy Borzov was included on the Voyager Golden Record that was sent in space to represent life on Earth to any extraterrestrial life that may find it.

Moorosi worked as a sports trainer at the President Brand Gold Mine and served as an athletics coach following his Olympic appearance, coaching Lesotho teams at the All-African Games and the Commonwealth Games. He also helped develop athletics in his country for the Lesotho Sports Council in the Ministry of Education. Moorosi ran workshops and coaching clinics and also founded a sports shop and a boys' football tournament. He died on 8 February 2013 in Maseru, Lesotho, from cancer, at the age of 67.