Mathews Motshwarateu was born on 2 November 1958 in Soweto. His talent for athletics already became apparent in his primary school years, which he spent at Isaacson Primary. He had a peculiar way of running that made it look like he was about to fall over at any moment. His teachers started calling him “Motshwareng o tlawa”, which is Sotho for “Watch him, he will fall”. Later, sports writer Arrie Joubert would translate the nickname as “Loop-en-Val”, which is the Afrikaans for “Walk-and-Fall”.
