卢旺达队迄今为止已经生产了两名奥运选手,其中包括两次旗手Adrien Niyonshuti。while looking to replicate this success in the women’s ranks that the Africa Rising Women’s Cycling Program was born.
The initial plan for the ARWC was to form a professional women’s cycling team involving Rwandan star Jeanne d’Arc and fellow riders from Eritrea and Ethiopia, but after their efforts laid bare the prejudices and problems involved in such a project – sponsors were few and far between and one Eritrean rider defected while guest racing in America, something Kimberly feared would have happened again – it was clear that they would need a different approach.
What that means is educating a continent where bicycles are, in Linda’s words, still considered “a man’s thing”, where some believe that a woman can lose her virginity simply by riding a bike, and where women are brought up with the ethos that it is their duty to become a wife, a mother and to clean the home.
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