Paris Olympics: Sharon Lokedi hopes to inspire "little girls" in Team Kenya debut
.jpg)
Reading Time: 3min | Fri. 09.08.24. | 18:27
The 30-year-old only made it off the reserves last month, owing to a late injury to Brigid Kosgei
Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi wants her presence at the Paris Olympics women’s marathon to act as an inspiration to “all little girls that everything is possible.”
Lokedi, 30, is one of three Kenyan athletes who will on Sunday 11 August take the hilly and demanding marathon course in Paris, hoping to etch her name in the history books in what will be her debut at the Olympic Games.
Lokedi, who Mozzart Sport detailed about her love for art and the role it plays in easing tension, only knew that she would be competing in the French capital last month (10 July), moments after Team Kenya’s other choice Brigid Kosgei had been ruled out with an “injury concern.”
.jpg)
And with over a month’s time to digest the news, Lokedi said that she didn’t believe that she made the Kenyan team, until landing in Paris.
“Feels really good,” Lokedi said of being at the Olympic Games. “I still didn’t believe I was in the team till I got here. It's slowly becoming real and it's such a dream come true.”
“Been watching the first weeks of the games and I look forward to getting there and competing. It's an opportunity unlike any other, and I’m going to use it to have some fun and represent my country to the fullest of my ability.”
Lokedi, who was on May 1 named as a reserve in the Kenyan marathon team, might have felt like her opportunity to compete at the Summer Games had taken a familiar route, as she admitted to missing the cut several times in other events over the years.
She said this, when asked what being at the Olympic Games meant for her.
“The Olympics defines what it has taken you to get here,” Lokedi said. “For me it hasn’t been easy. You work so hard, get so close and then you’re not quite there. I did try to get in when I was still running on the track but I couldn’t get in. I thought maybe I should try something else - move from the tracks and go to the road - and here I am.”
Lokedi, who only made her full marathon debut in 2022 at the New York City Marathon said that her journey was about “persistence to keep fighting despite facing challenges along the way.”
“Just not giving up,” she said. “Now I am here at the highest level of running, and I know the little girls out there watching us can see this and know that everything is possible. Just be excited, do the walk, and it’ll come true.”
On teaming up with defending Olympics champion Peres Jepchirchir and two-time Boston Marathon winner Hellen Obiri, Lokedi said: “We are all excited. We want to go out there, compete, work together, and show our strength and fighting spirit. It will be magical to lift the Kenyan flag together at the end of it all.”
The women’s marathon guns off at 9:00 AM on Sunday morning.
.jpg)
