Marie-Josée Ta Lou: Five things you should know about Africa’s top sprinting star

Marie-Josée Ta Lou could be Africa's big hope of an Olympic gold medal in the women sprints at Tokyo 2020.

No African woman has won the 100m or 200m at the Olympics or World Athletics Championships.

The best results to date have been Nigeria’s Mary Onyali’s bronze in Atlanta and Gloria Alozie’s silver in the 100m hurdles at Sydney 2000.

Three-time world medallist Marie Josee Ta Lou is ready to continue her impressive runs, feeling that Tokyo 2020 presents a great opportunity for Africa to sprint towards greatness.

“I want to be the greatest sprinter in Africa,” she told Olympics.com.

“I want to leave a big legacy. Not only for Ivorian girls, but for all African girls. I want to show that they can do something big if they believe in themselves.”

Here are five things you should know about the sprinter from Cote d’Ivoire who will be running in her second Olympics:

1.She played football before switching to track

Ta Lou’s sporting career began on the football pitch while schooling in her home capital Abidjan.

She was even spotted by a local women’s team who tried to recruit her, but her brother was not keen to let her sister practice a ‘boyish’ sport.

"My older brother did not want me to carry on with football, fearing that I would become a tomboy," Ta Lou told World Athletics.

She is also an ardent fan of Chelsea where her compatriot Didier Drogba played for nearly a decade.

Ta Lou’s brother somehow influenced her move to track as she was often beating boys in her class in sprints.

The switch in 2008 paid off.

While she was still in high school and running barefoot, Ta Lou defeated girls who were training to be national sprinters at a 200m race.

2.Ta Lou could have been a doctor…

The transition to track after school was not so smooth.

The six-times African champion's biggest hurdle was at home.

Her single mother who raised her four children alone, wanted her to go through to university and study medicine instead of pursuing a career as an athlete especially in an unestablished women's sport.

Ta Lou was ready to make her mother happy and even accepted a sports scholarship to pursue studies at the Shanghai University.

“When I started, my mother didn't want me to do it," she told Olympics.com.

“And people around me said, 'You are from Africa, I don't think you will become someone. I want you to continue your studies, to work in an office'. But I felt it, because I like to run so much. This is my way.”

“My results at the 2012 African Championships had made me realise that I had the potential to become an elite sprinter. Things did not work out for me [at the University] and I decided to return to Cote d'Ivoire."

READ MORE I Marie-Josee Ta Lou: "I run after my destiny"

She took bronze in the 200m and in the 4 × 100 m relay at the African Championships held in Benin.

Ta Lou then joined the IAAF High Performance Training Centre in Dakar and also began working with Ivorian head coach Anthony Koffi, who is still her trainer.

Showing promise in her continental and global races, the 32-year-old was awarded an Olympic solidarity scholarship to prepare for the Rio 2016 Games where she qualified for both the 100m and 200m, finishing fourth in both.

3.London holds her best memories

London has been a good hunting ground for the diminutive explosive sprinter.

Fresh from clinching triple medals at the 2016 African championships in Durban, she moved on to London for the Diamond League meeting.

She ran 10.96 seconds twice in the heats and final.

In the final, she beat a strong field that included double Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

"I did not know who had won and then I saw Fraser-Pryce coming to congratulate me. I had never thought I would beat her on the track one day,” she recalled.

But her ‘best’ was yet to come.

At the 2017 world championships, she easily topped her heats and semi-finals.

She was fastest off the blocks in the 100m finals but just lost to American Tori Bowie in the homestretch.

Ta Lou doubled her silver with a speedy 22.08 seconds, an Ivorian record, behind Dutch woman Dafne Schippers.

“The London 2017 200m was my best race so far,” she said of her closest shots at global medals.

4.Here's why she wishes to forget Rio

The 32-year-old has always her phone with her, but there is one memory she rarely taps to looks back at, Rio 2016.

“I want to forget Rio!” she told Olympics.com.

She was so close...

In the 100m dash she just lost the bronze to Jamaica’s Fraser-Pryce in a close race that had to be decided by a photo-finish.

The 2019 World bronze medallist, whose favourite food is the traditional West African dish of pounded yam (fufu) and Okra soup, again missed the medal in the 200m by a close margin.

“In the final, what happened, happened. But I try not to remember it too much and stay positive.

"Running alongside those ladies, who achieved great things, was useful for me.”

5. Ta Lou is keen on leaving a ‘big legacy’

Whenever she toils through her dreaded aerobic training, what keeps her going is the desire to leave a legacy.

“When I was young, I was dreaming of doing something different. I want to leave a big legacy. Not only for Ivorian girls, but for all African girls. I want to show that they can do something big if they believe in themselves,” she told Olympics.com of her plans to build on her legacy that includes medalling in Tokyo.

And in future when she reflects on her running days, the Ivorian flag bearer at the Tokyo Olympics does not want to be remembered only by the medals she’s won, but more by the determination in her sprints.

“When they see how I started and who I am today, that gives them hope. This is an opportunity for the youngsters to believe in themselves. I want to show them that they can do whatever they love and achieve great things,” she offered on her desire to make the greatest impression on hundreds of girls around the continent who look up to her as one of Africa’s top sprinting talent.

“It gives me so much confidence. I didn’t know that doing what I’m doing could be an example for other people. You don’t need much to become a star.

“It’s nice to see people who want to take a picture with me, who want to become like me. But I tell them they should not want to become like me, rather greater than me.”