"To a large part, I am here because of Wayde, and the fact that we saw someone break a world record at the Olympics from South Africa," Pillay told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview.

"We always thought that it was the Americans or the Europeans that were made for the sport but then seeing someone do it in our own backyard, it was like, 'but I can do that too!'"

The impact of van Niekerk’s success is undeniable. South Africa’s first world champion over a sprint distance with his maiden 400m title in Beijing in 2015, he went on to shatter the world record and win gold in 2016 at the Rio Olympics —inspiring a generation of South African sprinters, including Pillay. "Wayde showed us that we could compete with the best," Pillay said. "He made us believe in ourselves."

Pillay himself has experienced a meteoric rise since his Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020 where he was a member of the men’s 4x400m relay team that failed to make it past the heats. The 21-year-old bagged the world junior 400m gold medal the next year, raced to his first senior national title, and anchored South Africa to silver, finishing behind Botswana, at the 2024 World Relays in the Bahamas.

"If I think back to Bahamas, the first thing that comes to mind, it's the vibe in general, we were just so close, a community, it felt like a family, like a brotherhood," Pillay said.

It was South Africa’s first medal at a major championship since 2017 and Van Niekerk helped the quartet —which included Pillay, Gardeo Isaacs, Zakithi Nene, Antonie Nortje— earn an Olympic quota for Paris 2024 in the heats.

"The medal was just a very sweet cherry on top. For me that was like the most exciting event, I think partly because I got to race it with my hero," Pillay said referring to van Niekerk.

Pillay recalled that convincing van Niekerk to join the relay team was quite the coup for the young crop who have been pestering the two-time world champion since Tokyo 2020. Van Niekerk was withdrawn from the final as a precaution with Nortje replacing him. Pillay produced a spectacular anchor leg improving South Africa’s position from fifth to second in a time of 3:00.75.

Nene, Pillay and van Niekerk will compete in the one-lap individual in Paris, with the world record holder looking to defend his Olympic title. Pillay said that should van Niekerk decide to hang up his spikes in the 400m event, they would make every effort to persuade him to run in the relay.

"We also are trying to persuade Wayde even if he does retire from the 400 to still dabble in the relay for the next year or two if possible. If he still decides to train. Now that we went from qualifying to contending for a potential medal at the Olympics and having that depth makes it easier," he said.