PARIS-BOUND marathon runner Rutendo Nyahora, looks back with pride as she prepares for her second Olympics dance in Paris, France later this month.
The dream would not have been realised had it not been for the abject poverty she grew up accustomed to.
But, because she had had enough of suffering, Nyahora decided to look for an escape plan to deal with poverty once and for all.
She was a talented runner, gifted with an endurance ability and in her mind she thought if she could run at a certain pace for longer periods the dreaded poverty would not be able to keep up pace with her.
A long-distance runner was born out of the need to escape poverty and the rest is now history for the former Budiriro 2 Primary and Glen View 2 High school student.
"What inspired me to pursue my sport was the poverty, I was tired of poverty. I wanted a better life," Nyahora told The Standard Sport.
"I was tired I wanted to have a television set in my home, but now I have managed to build a house for my parents in Glenwood near Mbizi, Airport side and mine in Rockview along Mutare Road. My kids are learning at better schools now. So running changed my life and made me an enemy of poverty because now it can't keep up appearances with me and family anymore."
Nyahora is among the seven athletes, who will represent the country at the Summer Games. The other Team Zimbabwe members are fellow marathon runner, Isaac Mpofu, sprinters, Tapiwa Makarawu and Makanakaishe Charamba, swimmers, Dennison Cyprianos and Paige Van der Westhuizen and rower Stephen Cox.
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"Representing my country at the Olympics means a lot to me
"It shows how much I have been working behind the scenes and it's a befitting reward for hard work, I have been working so hard," she said.
"It's an honour to be part of Team Zimbabwe and no doubt together we are going to stand tall in Paris, but divided we will fall. "We just want to make our country proud at these global games that celebrate friendship and an event that brings people together."
Her crowning moment in the Summer Games' history of building friendships was her coming face to face with the world's fastest sprinter, Usain Bolt and Kenyan middle-distance star Hellen Obiri when she made her debut at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro Olympics in Brazil.
"Competing in Rio was a dream come true. I learnt many valuable lessons and chief among them is that the Olympics platform is everybody's race. I saw top runners walking tired and I couldn't believe it and I was asking myself if it was me overtaking the champions in the race. I was young, it was my second marathon and I didn't have much experience on marathons. Now I have experience and I'm training hard for this marathon," added Nyahora.
"At Rio I met Hellen Obiri and Usain Bolt. It was the best moment of my running career and this episode inspired me to crave more major championships so that I keep on meeting the world's best. Being at the Olympics shaped my running career especially when I want to race overseas I don't struggle to get entry because I'm an Olympian. With Bolt we didn't talk, I just watched him live from a short distance but with Obiri we chat almost every week till now and she's always advising me to train hard."
The proud mother of two kids, Britney (15) and Sakhile (3) said her kids were her sole motivation and for them she would keep running as far away from poverty as possible.
"My preparations have been going on very well. The idea is to run a good time at the Olympics. My personal goal is to start the race and finish the race, run a personal best record and finish in a good position. So, to aspiring athletes, never look down upon yourself, if you believe you will achieve. I believed in eating bacon and cheese and now I'm enjoying this kind of food," she said.
"I'm a full-time runner and a full-time mom. Every morning after my run I take a bath with my three-year-old boy. We eat our breakfast and watch cartoons for an hour and then go to bed and rest in preparation for the afternoon training.
"After the afternoon training, I take my bath again with my son so that I get to have more time with him. I don't want him to feel like running is taking much of his time from mom."
Nyahora shrugged off a hamstring injury she picked up in April during the Hannover Marathon. So good was Nyahora that even in the discomfort of her injury she still qualified for Paris.
"Credit to ZOC, my coach Lindsey Parry and my training partner Shadrack Hoff, South African Olympic athlete who were there for me and helped me with my healing process," she said.
