Fredericks was born in
Windhoek, the only child of Riekie Fredericks, a seamstress, and Andries Kangootui, a farmer. He grew up in the city's
Katutura township, his parents splitting up while he was little. In 1981 he switched to the Catholic school at
Döbra to play competitive soccer. When he received a scholarship to complete his
matric at
Concordia College Fredericks took up athletics because the soccer was not strong at Concordia. He still played for
Black Africa, one of the country's top teams. After school, he took up work at
Rössing Uranium Ltd. in
Swakopmund and soon got a partial scholarship at
Brigham Young University in the US in 1987. There he studied computer science and graduated with an
MBA. During his college career, Fredericks earned numerous
All-American citations and won three
NCAA championships.
Athletics career In 1990, after his country had become independent of South Africa, Fredericks could participate in international competition. At the World Championships in 1991, Fredericks won a silver medal in the 200 m, finishing behind
Michael Johnson, and placed 5th in the 100 m. He then went on to The following year, at the
Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics, Fredericks became
Namibia's first Olympic medalist when he finished second in both the 100 m and 200 m. He won the silver medal in the men's 100-metre dash, with a time of 10.02 seconds, just .06 seconds behind the gold medal winner. In 1993, in
Stuttgart, he became the nation's first World Champion, winning the 200 m. At the
1994 Commonwealth Games, he won gold in the 200 m and bronze in the 100 m. His time of 19.97 seconds in the 200 metres is the current
Commonwealth Games record. At the 1995 World Championships 100 m, after crossing the line he immediately went to help his friend
Linford Christie who pulled a muscle in the race and signalled for help. This act of kindness endeared him to many (particularly British) athletics fans. For the
1996 Summer Olympics, Fredericks was among the title favourites for both the 100 m and 200 m. He reached both finals and again finished second in both. In the 100 m, he was beaten by
Donovan Bailey, who set a new World Record, and in the 200 m, he was beaten by
Michael Johnson, who also set a new World Record. At the time, Fredericks's second-place run was the third-fastest in history, beaten only by Johnson (twice). At the
1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, Frankie once again missed out on the chance of gold in the 100 m; he was beaten by
Ato Boldon of
Trinidad and Tobago. Suffering from injuries, Fredericks had to withdraw from the 1999 and 2001 World Championships, and the
2000 Summer Olympics. When he arrived in
Abuja to represent
Namibia at the 2003 All-Africa Games, he was lauded by Nigerian supporters and came away with a silver medal. He then went on to win the 200 m at the
inaugural Afro-Asian Games in 2003. In the 200 m final at the
2004 Summer Olympics, he finished 4th. After the end of the 2004 outdoor season, Fredericks retired from competition. He had run the 100 m under 10 seconds 27 times.
Personal bests • All information taken from athlete's World Athletics profile. ==IOC career==