Adrien Niyonshuti’s memories of Rwanda’s genocide are hazy, but when he needs to shut off his mind and forget the slaughter that killed six of his brothers, he jumps on his bike.
The small-framed 25-year-old is preparing to become the east African country’s first Olympic mountain biker, honored with carrying the national flag at the opening ceremony of the London Games.
“When I ride my bike, there’s no one who can stop me or ask me anything so things are really good,” Niyonshuti said in Kigali, the Rwandan capital. “Riding gives me an opportunity to help forget the things that happened in 1994.”
Photo: Reuters
Niyonshuti and his infectious grin are becoming increasingly well known in the city. As he cycles through the streets he is repeatedly called out to by well-wishers.
It was his uncle who inspired Niyonshuti as a youngster.
“Even though he wasn’t professional, my uncle was a champion in Rwanda for many years and everyone in this country knows him,” he said.
When Niyonshuti was 14, his uncle took him to watch the Tour de Rwanda race through his home town.
“I said to my uncle: ‘I want to be like those guys one day.’ He said ‘Yeah? You can be,’” Niyonshuti said.
Two years later his uncle brought him his first racing bike.
Now Niyonshuti is based in South Africa where he is a member of the MTN Qhubeka team, the biggest cycling team in Africa.
However it has been a difficult ride in between.
Beyond the loss of family members during the 1994 massacre that tore Rwanda apart along its ethnic seams, Niyonshuti is haunted by the death of one of his closest friends.
In 2008, Niyonshuti was out cycling with his friend and teammate from his first club, Team Rwanda, one of a generation of genocide orphans, when the friend was pulled under the wheels of a car and killed instantly.
The following year, Niyonshuti and his colleagues were violently robbed at their home in South Africa. One was stabbed in the leg.
“Sometimes these things that have happened affect me,” Niyonshuti said. “If I pass somewhere and I see someone have an accident or I’ve seen some riders crash in a race, I can get a bit affected and remember what happened to my friend. But then I try to think ‘this is life now,’ and carry on.”
Training for the Olympics six days a week has been grueling, the devout Muslim said, especially during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan when he fasts during daylight hours.
“The big event for me now is the Olympics, it’s great for me and for my country because it’s the first time we qualified for mountain biking,” he said.
However, his ambitions extend beyond London.
“But after that I will focus more on training and getting strong because then the real focus will be on being the first African team to compete in the Tour de France,” he said. “After the Olympics, I’m going to do more road bike and then I can pick up speed and the technical skills and work together with my team in South Africa and I hope that next year or the year after I will be going for the Tour de France.”
For now, Niyonshuti is focusing on the Olympics and making his family proud.
Kosovo Olympic authorities have asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to open disciplinary proceedings against Novak Djokovic, accusing the Serb of stirring up political tension by saying “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” at the French Open. Djokovic wrote the message on a camera lens following his first-round win on Monday, the same day that 30 NATO peacekeeping troops were hurt in clashes with Serb protesters in the Kosovo town of Zvecan where Djokovic’s father grew up. “Kosovo is our cradle, our stronghold, center of the most important things for our country,” 36-year-old told Serbian media. Serbian authorities said 52 protesters were wounded
Unable to sleep the night before her first-round match at the French Open against second seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine checked her phone at 5am on Sunday and saw disturbing news back home in Kyiv. At least one person was killed when the capital of Kostyuk’s nation was subjected to the largest drone attack by Russia since the start of the war, launched with an invasion assisted by Belarus in February last year. “It’s something I cannot describe, probably. I try to put my emotions aside any time I go out on court. I think I’m better than
China has long been the sleeping giant of men’s tennis, but on Monday the giant stirred as Shanghai trailblazer Zhang Zhizhen advanced to the second round of Roland Garros. One of three Chinese men in the draw, Zhang became the first from the nation to win a main draw match at Roland Garros in 86 years after Serbian opponent Dusan Lajovic retired due to illness when trailing 6-1, 4-1. Compatriots Shang Juncheng and Wu Yibing bowed out in defeat, but 26-year-old Zhang has a big chance to go further when he takes on Argentine qualifier Thiago Agustin Tirante for a place in
Novak Djokovic seemed ready to move on from non-tennis issues at the French Open on Wednesday, while two of the four Taiwanese at the tournament advanced in the women’s doubles, with one due to play last night. Serbia’s Djokovic beat Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 7-6 (7/2), 6-0, 6-3 in the second round of the men’s singles and wrote on the lens of a TV camera — an autograph and a smiley face. It was quite different from what happened after his win on Monday, when Djokovic wrote in Serbian: “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence.” He spoke about the matter