Sprinter Wayde Van Niekerk Officially Named Richard Mille Partner Athlete

Just about a week ago, we wrote about Gold Olympic medalists from Rio 2016 who were also brand ambassadors. One of those was Wayde Van Niekerk, the South African sprinter. The thing is, Richard Mille had not yet made the announcement that Van Niekerk was a new brand ambassador — but when we saw the watch on his wrist, it seemed a given.

Olympic rules don’t allow watch brands to announce what their ambassadors are wearing during the Olympics, but now that they have concluded, Mille has made the announcement that Van Niekerk joins the list of athletes who wear their Mille watches while in play.

The 24-year-old South African multi-disciplinary runner has had an impressive career thus far and the Rio Summer Olympics didn’t disappoint for him. There, he made history setting a new world record for the 400M (43.03 seconds)– beating the previous record that had been set by Michael Johnson in 1999. He beat the old record by 15/100ths of a second. He has set other records throughout the year, as well, including having won a host of titles, setting some personal bests and more.

His watch of choice: the RM 27-02.