You know Burkina Faso. The country of Mamadou “Bebeto” Zongo. The country now led by Ibrahim Traore
But there is another son who has carried its name to the world stage-Hugues Fabrice Zango. The first African ever to win a gold medal in the triple jump at the World Championships. And here is what most people do not know: Zango is also a Doctor of Electrical Engineering.
Today in Tokyo, he made his last leap. At 32, he announced his retirement.
In Ouagadougou, where the Sahel sun scorches the earth and the wind carries dust like old secrets, Zango grew up chasing shadows across cracked ground. Triple jump was not supposed to belong here. Burkina Faso had no medals, no tradition in the event. Athletics meant running for water, not chasing podiums. But he leaped anyway.
By 18, dusty fields gave way to European tracks. A scholarship carried him to France, then to the United States. His long frame coiled like a spring, and the world began to notice. But Zango was never just an athlete-he was an engineer in the making. By day, he studied circuits. By night, he studied flight. “Athletics is my sprint,”
He would say. “Engineering is my marathon.”
Tokyo 2021 changed everything. A bronze medal-the first ever for Burkina Faso. For the world, it was just third place. For Ouagadougou, it was gold dressed in another color. The streets erupted, the anthem played, and for once Africa was not seen as a place of deficit, but as a place of lift-off.
Then came Budapest, 2023. Zango crouched, coiled, and launched-18.07 meters. History. Africa’s first world champion in the triple jump. The first African to fly past 18 meters. Burkina Faso froze in awe. Elders offered prayers. Children leapt into sand pits. His name echoed from the capital to the smallest village. “Zango,” they cried, “our eagle.”
But eagles do not soar forever. Today, almost at the same place where his story began, Zango said goodbye to competition. His knees ache, his back carries the map of every leap. But his journey is not ending-it is changing.
Because Zango has a second life. He holds a doctorate in Electrical Engineering. He defended a thesis on sustainable grids for off-grid villages-power for the powerless. In Bobo-Dioulasso, he now lectures on waves of another kind: electromagnetic, not athletic. And then there is ZangoTech-his startup, building solar grids for schools, markets, and homes. A leap over poverty, one panel at a time.
“Sport gave me wings,” he told reporters. “Now, I give them to others.”
Isitoshe,
The boy who once chased dust devils has closed his athletics book, but he is opening an even bigger one. He will not fade. He has simply landed. And the ground in Burkina Faso will tremble-not with applause, but with possibility.
May the day break
#BurkinaFaso #trackandfield
