Lesotho taekwondo fighter, Michelle Tau, is eagerly anticipating her first fight at the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics in France.
Though the global sporting event started in July, Tau will commence her quest for a medal on August 7. The southern African will become the first person to qualify for the Olympics in taekwondo in two decades from her country.
The athlete is carrying on what is regarded as a family legacy, with her late father—John Tau—who passed away when she was a young child—was a national taekwondo legend in Lesotho.
Tau, a former beauty queen, is confident that months of hard work and preparation will pay off with a podium finish in Paris.
“Everything is possible but it has not been easy to get to the Olympics. It requires a lot of sacrifices but with determination, dedication, prayer and good support, everything is possible,” noted Tau.
Tau has enjoyed the incredible support of Mchezo—A Rwanda-based company one of whose aims is ‘investing in the future of sport and technology in Africa’. The company has worked in partnership with the government of Lesotho, in supporting her during the qualification process for the Olympics.
Mchezo is a company focused on sports and talent development, responsible gaming and innovation, with the aim of bringing dreams to life through diverse development projects across the continent. As the betPawa brand owner in Africa, the firm provides client services by offering a franchise to licence holders. Its vision is to ensure compliance, transparency, development of the sector (betting, payments and monitoring) and investment.
Mchezo helped Tau to attend top taekwondo trainings and programmes in Germany and Spain, after she booked her ticket to Paris in the women’s under 49 kg category. She achieved the milestone through winning at the African qualifying tournament which held in Dakar, Senegal, early in February this year.
Her coach, Hugo Tortosa, 24, one of the youngest coaches at the Olympics aged said that Tau’s training this week will comprise “very specific work to the first fight.”
“In taekwondo you can only think about the first opponent because if you do not pass that round you cannot compete further, so we can’t think about other opponents at this time,” Tortosa added.
Managing Director of Mchezo, Ntoudi Mouyelo, said he could not be more proud of Tau’s achievement and has never doubted her talent.
“From the moment we were first introduced to her to this date, we at Mchezo have never once doubted her drive to excel. It was very clear from the word go that she was a cut above the rest, the kind of sports personality anyone can enjoy workingwith,” Mouyelo said.
Tau, who is a role model in her country, has been part of the Lesotho national team since 2013. She serves as the Female Taekwondo Anti-Doping Ambassador for Lesotho and Africa—a role that essentially promotes the importance of athletes staying healthy and drug-free.
Apart from being a taekwondo champion, Tau is also a champion for women’s rights and makes it her mission to ensure that every girl and woman has the opportunity to learn how to defend themselves against gender-based violence.
