Growing up in Kisii, I developed a passion, no, a love for sports. As a child, I played all kinds of sports, from football, volleyball, high jump to running. I ran 100m, 200m, and 400m. I wanted to participate in everything.
Anytime I found out there was a race, I would join in and compete with the older kids in school, including my sister, who wasn’t amused that her kid sister was competing against her. That’s how, in Standard Five, I found myself competing up to the regional levels and the following year, I made it to the nationals.
In high school, the school principal encouraged me to play football instead of running, so I played positions 6 and 7 as a midfielder and 9 as a striker.
Much as I loved sports, and it occupied most of my time, life at home was tough.
My parents died when I was two years old. I don’t remember anything about them, but I knew my mother used to run because, as I was growing up, I would often hear people say, “This kid runs like her mother.” One day, when I become a mum, that’s what I want to hear. I want people to say Moraa’s child runs like her mother.
My grandparents raised me, and they did the best they could. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed on when I was in Standard Six, so it was just me and my ailing grandfather. Sometimes, he would get so sick I would run to the neighbours to ask for help to take him to the hospital. But when he would get better, he would always help me with chores like washing clothes when I was too tired from herding the few cows and goats we had.
After I finished primary school, my grandfather got so sick to the point he had to use feeding tubes. His sickness and the fact that we had no money meant I couldn’t go to secondary school. So, two weeks after everyone had reported to high school for Form One, I went and got a job tilling people’s farms. After I got my first wages, I went and bought some plastic shoes, a skirt and a t-shirt, and the following Monday, I went to school and told the principal that I wanted to study just like the other pupils. That principal didn’t chase me away; instead, he bought some shopping for me, and I became a day scholar. That’s the principal who encouraged me to play football, I guess because he also loved the sport.
In Form One, someone once approached me to run for their company, but when I told the principal about it, he refused to permit me to go. Nevertheless, I was adamant about going. I asked my cousin for fare and went to Nakuru, where I met Maureen Thomas and Maximila Imali, whom we raced together, and I finished in second place. When I went back to school, of course, the principal asked where I went, and I told him, including the fact that we got paid for running. I didn’t get into trouble, but he told me to give the money to my grandfather, and I did.
Things, however, took a turn for the worse when the principal was transferred to another school, and I was often sent home for not paying school fees.
During one of the regional sporting events, I met Haron Sangore Onchonga, who was the principal at Mogonga Secondary School. My luck changed that day because he asked me to transfer to his school owing to the fact that I was talented in sports. I didn’t even tell my grandfather I was transferring schools. At Mogonga Secondary School, I became a boarder, and Principal Haron catered for everything I needed, including pocket money. I remember I would always wait till the end of the school term so that I could give my grandfather the pocket money.
At school, I was dedicated to training, and it paid off because I took first position in the 200m, 400m and relay races at the East African Games that were held in Eldoret. In 2017, I went to Nairobi for the Under-20 trials, and I made it to Team Kenya. That win cemented my belief in my talent, and I took training sessions even more seriously. One of the most memorable moments when I was a junior athlete was when I beat Brazil’s Alison Brendom Dos Santos in the 4 by 400m relay mixed-gender race.
Throughout my career as an athlete, from the World Under-18 Championships to the World Championships in Doha, I always used to run the 400m races. In 2019, during the heats of the World Championships at the Semi-Finals, I ran in the 9th lane and finished in fourth position. I was devastated. Everyone I was sharing a room with, Beatrice Chepkoech and Helen Obiri, had medals, and I was the only one who didn’t have a medal.
We talked and they advised me to shift to the 800m race, where they thought I could perform better. So, that same year, I started training for the 800m. The first time, I clocked 2:07. When I compared my time to Pamela Jelimo’s time of 1:54, I didn’t think I would ever make it, so I spoke to my coach, Alex Sang. He told me that I was still young, and I should continue training.
For the next one, I made a time of 2:06. At this point, I told the coach I couldn’t do it, but he insisted that I continue training. So, my time gradually went to 2:05, then 2:04, and 2:03, and I started seeing the difference. I kept shaving off the seconds until I got to 2:00. So, my coach looked for a race for me to compete, and we found one abroad.
Being an Olympic year, we didn’t get a race, so we decided that I should be a pacer in the 1500m race. I was asked to cross the 1000m mark at a time of 2:40, but I crossed it at 2:38. My coach saw this as good progress, so he asked my manager to find us an 800m race. We got one in Finland, but my time of 1:59:6 did not qualify me for the Olympics. We were still optimistic, so we got another race in Sweden, where I clocked 1:59:2 and I qualified for the Olympics.
The training has gotten tougher because, one, I have to build endurance, strength, speed, and power, and two, the races in Kenya and abroad are different.
In Kenya, I’m not used to running heats, semi-finals, and finals. In Oregon, at the 2022 World Championships, where I finished third and won a bronze medal, I ran all three, and it was tiring, to say the least. Keep in mind I had to do the same in the next race not long after that in Birmingham at the Commonwealth Games, and I won Gold.
The Birmingham race was really tough because the pace in the first lap was too high, so we closed it at 00:56. By then, I was tired, and everyone started passing me, leaving me behind. I remember there were several of us running in our coach’s group, and none of us had won a medal yet. All through that race, the coach kept cheering us on, and that gave me this sudden burst of energy; I accelerated and finished first, winning us a gold medal. I was so emotional I cried when they played the Kenyan national anthem. I wished my mother were there to hear the national anthem being played for her daughter.
Athletics has changed my life, and now what I really want to do is pay it forward to others who need an opportunity to make something of themselves. When my cousin Sarah Moraa texted that she wanted to start training with me, I thought she was too young to even bring her to the training camps with me. But she was quite persistent.
After I came back from the World Championships in Budapest last year, she came to train with me in Ngong. Since I was in the off-season, she had already gotten a head start in training in cross country, and she was performing really well. So, I asked coach Sang to help her, and as we started training together, I asked her to be my pacer. Sarah often jokes that she’ll take my medal, but jokes aside, I know she takes the sport seriously because she is already a gold medallist in the 800m race.
My family’s bleak past always reminds me to work hard and focus on the goals I want to achieve. While I’m still reminded of where I come from, I’m grateful for all that I’ve been able to achieve. Sometimes, I can’t believe that I, Mary Moraa, can walk into a supermarket and shop, pay school fees for my small sister, and send my brother money.
