Matlapeng had a marathon
personal best of 2:33:34 hours going into the
1984 Olympic marathon. He was described sarcastically as a "household name" by commentators, mocking his unusual-sounding name in the "wonderfully monikered" field. He started the Olympic marathon, but did not finish the race. By 1986, Matlapang had improved his marathon best to 2:17:47, setting a
Botswanan record and making him a favorite to break the course record at the 1986 Churchdown 10-mile Beer Race in
Gloucestershire. Though he underperformed at the Beer Race, he was selected to represent
Botswana at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in the marathon, where he placed 14th. Surprisingly, Matlapeng moved down in distance by a factor of over 100 times to compete in the
Botswanan 4 × 400 m relay team after the marathon, though his team was disqualified and didn't advance to the finals. Matlapeng's performance in such disparate events led to debate about the seriousness of the Commonwealth Games. Matlapeng qualified for his first World Championships at the
1987 World Championships in Athletics, where he competed in the marathon. He finished 29th in a time of 2:24:43 and was again lauded for his name. At the
1988 Olympic Games marathon, Matlapeng finished 34th in 2:20:51. He competed again at the
1990 Commonwealth Games in the marathon, finishing 14th again. ==References==