Early
in our career, we are too immersed in our profession to have time for our
family, leave alone the society. Helping others becomes something that one
normally indulges in after retirement, not at the peak of one’s success. And
when you have just started, you can be excused if you are too ‘focused’ on your
success to care for the deprived and the needy. But then you are not Tanya, the
motocross sensation from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwean
teenager Tanyaradzwa “Tanya” Muzinda is a sensation in the world of Motocross.
She has the guts to compete in a sport as tough as motocross and a heart to
match. Yet she loves more the privilege of placing a smile on the faces of
children. She pays the fees for 45 kids: 40 girls and 5 boys, and also sponsors
a charity.
Just
14, Tanya is making sure that a girl child also gets a fair chance at education
and she is donating a substantial part of her earnings to Chinamano Council
Primary School, Epworth. But this is just the beginning for her. By 2020, she
dreams of ultimately sending 500 children to school.
Tanya
became the Junior Sportswoman of the Year and also Junior Sportsperson of the
Year 2015 in Birmingham in the UK. She won the Region 5 African Union Awards
year and even the Mandela Trophy. She was elated at the honor as well as
excited to have traveled to Europe for the first time in her life. She was
grateful for the support she had received and vowed to fulfill the dreams and
expectations of all who have supported her. But her ultimate dream is to
inspire many more African girls to be as successful.
Tanya
and her family were the first to move for good to the capital, Harare. City
life has not uprooted Tanya, the eldest child in her family, from her heritage.
She is the first girl from her family who attended school; she was into sports
right from an early age.
Her
father stood by her and bought Tanya a go-kart. He was a motocross enthusiast
but had to forego his passion for the family. With her go-kart in tow, Tanya
got a feel of the Donnybrook Motorsport Park. She practiced there regularly.
She was soon introduced to motocross as the park also had 3 motocross tracks.
Tanya
became the foremost Zimbabwean female champion in motocross. Tanya deeply loved
this sport so her dad contacted Stefy Bau, the Motocross legend to mentor
Tanya. He wanted the best possible support and training for her daughter.
In
2013, Stefy was in Zimbabwe. With just two weeks of coaching, Tanya won her
second championship in the highly competitive 65B division class.
Tanya
hopes to be the first female African rider to succeed consistently at an
international level. #TeamTanya was thus born.
Her
passion to help matches her passion for motocross. This teenage sensation was
recently nominated for the African Child Sports Personality of the Year in
Africa award and has also been selected as the United Nations Honorary
Ambassador for gender, youth, and sport. She is also the European Union’s
ambassador for food security in rural areas.
Tanyawants to do something for the community. She is as passionate about educating
the underprivileged girls as she is about motocross. She had her share of
deprivation in the initial stages of her profession and knows the hardship her
father went through so that she could succeed in her endeavors. She can feel
the trauma and pain a child goes through when they are deprived of things as
basic as education. Tanya became the first in the history of Zimbabwean
motocross to win a championship race.
July 2018 saw feature as one of the 10 greatest African Female
Trailblazer Athletes.
This
year she has been furiously training for the World Junior Amateur Championships
in the U.S. in October and November. Her goal remains the Women World Motocross
Championship, and when she wins she will surely be the first black African
woman to win the world championship. And every win will surely put more smiles
on the faces of children who will have the privilege to attend school thanks to
Tanya.
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