For years, popular images of sailing have depicted stories of strong men venturing out at sea, looking for food, hunting dangerous predators or exploring uncharted waters, and unlocking the mysteries of what lies on the other side. However, over the past decades there has been a shifting paradigm as we’ve seen more investments in the activity as a sport. Sailing has been an Olympic sport since the Games of the I Olympiad, held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. With African teams breaking into this category less than 50 years ago, an African nation is yet to win at the sport at the Olympic Games. Home to beautiful islands, the coastal country of Mozambique offers a lot of waters to venture through, and this year three young women stand a chance at taking home the grand prize for their country.

As male-dominated sport, the mere fact that Mozambique’s first qualifiers are women, is a testament to the support the country continues to uphold in ensuring gender equality in sports. It also follows in the example of Mozambique’s Lurdes Mutola who is ranked one of the greatest female runners of all-time. Decades later, with a new generation of female athletes, these young women are hoping to carry the legacy forward.

They hope to learn from this unique experience from more seasoned athletes. Last year, when they had qualified for the 470 series, both Maria Machava, 16, and Denise Parruque, 18, were highschool students, since then Parruque has completed her secondary education and is preparing to attend college. All have revealed that it can be quite challenging to juggle both their athletic training with their school work. “It’s a large responsibility to be part of a national team and meet academic requirements,” says Parruque.

“One thing that has enabled us to push through is patience. Patience is permitted to have the will to wake up everyday, do what we have to do in the waters, come back home, rest and repeat that process again the next day,” adds Machava. Deizy Nhaquile, 19, and the oldest of the group, offers a different perspective having trained since the age of 10. Nhaquile was the first African to qualify for the Olympics back in 2019. Securing wins since 2012, she is now pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Sciences & Management. “I think beyond looking at the practicality of sports we need to understand the science behind it,” she says. “This will permit us to develop our nation, we need to move away from having engineers as the presidents of our federations and appoint people who have a more profound understanding of the sport at hand.” She will be competing in the Laser Radial series.

A sisterhood has developed between the young women—Nhaquile is seen as the older sister, who is more focused and less social, Machava, the aspiring model, is more demure while the serene Parruque acts as the mediator. One unifying point about all three of them is how they got into the sport. Parruque started sailing because her father is a sailor. “Initially, I didn’t like it to be very frank but over time I began to fall in love with the sport, I could understand why he enjoyed it so much. That’s what made me want to become an athlete.” she says. Machava, on the other hand, endured the standard scolding from her African mother, who was not fond of her children staying at home doing nothing, particularly her daughters. “Because my sister was already training, my mother thought it would be a good hobby for me to take up. I really didn’t enjoy it at first because we were expected to spend hours in extremely cold waters. With time I too began to develop a passion for the sport.” Although a previously trained swimmer, Nhaquile too did not dwell well with the waters and initially wanted to give up but eventually grew to love the sport. “It gave me the opportunity to travel and make friends from different corners of the world.” says Nhaquile.

The duo's first competition was in January of 2020 in Angola, where they competed in the 470 series. Nhaquile says they felt welcomed and received a lot of support from more experienced athletes. “Because we haven’t competed in many competitions leading up to the Olympic Games, the natural fear and concern persists, being someone extremely competitive I like to always be on my A-game.” says Nhaquile. However, they are hopeful that all of the hard work and support they’ve received from their club and coach will help them excel.

Naturally, a big change in their day to day lives has been the ongoing pandemic. In Mozambique the situation remained controlled for quite some time. The country imposed several lock downs and enforced many regulations to prevent the spread of the virus, but now as the third wave has begun, the country is predicted to see far more deaths. As athletes who qualified for the Tokyo Olympics, they had to take extra precautions and not subject themselves to an environment where they could potentially be exposed to the virus—particularly public transport.This proved to be a challenge for them as they came from different parts of the city and public transport was their main mode of transportation. “We had to put our own safety first as now we are not just individual entities but we represent the country.” says Parruque.

“We definitely feel like we’re getting a lot of support from our fellow athletes, family and our neighbourhoods. Sometimes we’re walking down the street and people yell out our names in glee.” says Machava. Winning at the Tokyo Olympic Games would be a great victory but that is not their only goal, the young women see this as an opportunity to learn at the largest global stage. They believe they will come out of this experience with a newfound perspective on the sport and life as an athlete. However, Nhaquile is hungry for a win, with a natural competitive edge she yearns for nothing more than to raise the flag in Tokyo for her country.

Each brought up in the capital city of Maputo, over the past fews years their lives have centred around their athletic careers. “We don’t really do much at home but sleep, we’re not the social type to go out partying and drinking, we're more family orientated and very focused” says Machava. Being a Mozambican athlete is not easy because it is hard to make a living from being an athlete alone. This motivates them to do just as well academically as they do professionally in sailing. They attribute their discipline and success to their support system: God and their families.

Bearing in mind the impact they are making for Mozambican women and pan-African women, they feel humbled and privileged to be able to touch others’ lives. “To all the girls who find yourselves watching us, we hope that our individual journeys serve to inspire you and we invite you to be a part of this beautiful experience that has given us so much over the years,'' says Parruque. “Not only sailing but any sport that gives you a sense of belonging and purpose.”