Ans Botha's transformation from being a 75-year-old cooing over her 10-month-old great grandson to playing 'supercoach' to the greatest new talent in athletics is one of sport's more extraordinary makeovers.
Yet as Wayde Van Niekerk runs the 400 metres heats at the World Athletics Championships in London on Saturday, eyeing more athletics landmarks, he would not want anyone but this "amazing woman" to be guiding him.
Botha has three children, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. "Oh yes, I'm a great-grandmother, but not of Wayde!" she laughs, when asked how they gel with their 50-year age gap.
South African van Niekerk says he teases his Namibian mentor for her stubborn ways and Botha gives him old-fashioned looks about his blaring music. "She's strict," smiles van Niekerk, yet, clearly, their relationship comes with deep affection, trust and respect.
It has worked famously in the five years since van Niekerk enrolled at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein and asked to join the training group of Botha, their athletics coach of 25 years.
Under her tutelage, not only has he become a world record breaker and Olympic champion at 400 metres, clocking 43.03 seconds in Rio last year, but also the only man ever to break 10 seconds for 100m, 20secs for 200m and 44secs for 400m.
In London, he could become the first man since Michael Johnson in 1995 to achieve the 200m/400m double at the world championships.
Botha smiles that, actually, like the rest of her training group, she cannot help but see van Niekerk like one of her "children". From schoolchildren to veterans, they all call her 'Tannie Ans' - Auntie Ans in Afrikaans.
Van Niekerk's dramatic rise over the past year has proved a real culture shock for Botha, finding herself at the centre of a media fuss.
After a 50-year self-taught coaching career which began back in Namibia when she couldn't find a coach for her daughter Herma, Botha, once a long jumper and sprinter herself, said: "In a way, it's a really difficult experience for me at 75.
"It is physically demanding at my age but I enjoy it."
Van Niekerk feels blessed to have her guiding him.
"She's an amazing woman," he told reporters on Wednesday. "I don't think she's as scary as some people think but she is a tough lady.
"Once you step on the wrong side then you can find it's quite difficult to win her over. I haven't stepped over that mark, but I do like to tease her which she is not used to."
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