Cyprian Tseriwa

Cyprian Tseriwa (born January 16, 1937) was the first Olympic athlete of African descent for the country Zimbabwe, running in the 1960 Olympics in Rome in both the 5000m and the 10000m races. He ran under the flag of Southern Rhodesia, a colony of Great Britain.[1]

His 5000 metres time at the Rome Olympics was 15:02 and his 10000 metres time was 30.47.

Cyprian was from Mashonaland East. After his Olympic appearance in 1960, he was hired to be an athletic instructor for the Wankie Collery. There he coached other locally well known Zimbabwean athletes.[1]

It is unknown what happened to him after this time. There were other Southern Rhodesian Olympians at this time but they were of European descent. Cyprian was the first black athlete to attend the Games from white-dominated Southern Rhodesia.

Mathias Kanda and Robson Mrombe succeeded Cyprian as Southern Rhodesian Olympians of black descent when they both ran the marathon in the 1964 Olympics in Rome. After 1964 the colony of Southern Rhodesia became the breakaway Republic of Rhodesia. The sport of Athletics was integrated in Rhodesia from 1960 but the politics of Rhodesia was not integrated and in 1968 the country was banned from the Olympic Games. The country was readmitted in 1980 as Zimbabwe.