Rice Lake sprinter Kenny Bednarek wins silver in the men’s 200m

Wisconsin sprinter Kenny Bednarek won his second silver medal at the Summer Olympic Games on Thursday. 

The Rice Lake native competed in the men’s track and field 200-meter event, where he finished second in the race with a time of 19.62 seconds — just milliseconds behind Letsile Tebogo of Botswana. U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles took bronze in the race.

Bednarek spoke to WPR earlier this summer and said he was confident going into the Olympic Games.

“For Paris, I plan on throwing down a hot time and shocking the world,” he said.

Bednarek also said he wanted to make Rice Lake and the U.S. proud.

This is Bednarek’s second silver medal in the 200-meter event, after he took second in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Last week, he competed in the tightly contested final 100-meter event in Paris where he took seventh.

The sprinter has another chance to medal in Friday’s 4×100-meter men’s relay.