AT the tender age of nine, Tanya Muzinda is the youngest ambassador in the world. The young girl was recently appointed the European Union ambassador for Food Security in Rural Areas in Zimbabwe.
By Munyaradzi Madzokere
Tanya is no ordinary girl, she is a girl of firsts, having already firmly established herself as a phenomenon in the macho world of motocross and this seems to be just the beginning of her journey to international acclaim.
Competing with boys only since she started, she has had countless podium finishes and only last year at the FIM Africa Motocross Championships in South Africa, she emerged the best female rider.
Apart from EU, the young motocross sensation has also caught the eye of Stefy Bau, a United States-based former motocross female world champion who has since signed her into her renowned 211MX academy.
Tanya, a Grade 5 student at Eaglesvale School in Harare, is the first daughter of Tawanda and Adiyon Muzinda. She was born on August 13 2004.
When she was born, none of the parents had the slightest inkling of what she would grow up to become but as fate would have it, Tawanda,who then resided in Mabvuku, avidly followed local motorsport.
The father, a local business consultant, shared the story of his daughter who has achieved so much in her short career in the sport that he loves the most.
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“I have always loved motocross and since I grew up in Mabvuku I would occasionally go to Donnybrook to watch with my daughter, I later bought my own bike and would sometimes trail ride with my friends.
“Tanya joined motocross at the age of five with the help of a good friend Biggie Chitima who was already part of the sport. He asked me to bring my child to Donnybrook to join motocross because he had a son doing the same thing but he didn’t know that mine was a daughter.
“When I brought Tanya, he was surprised that she was a girl, but because he had not said bring a son, he just accepted Tanya and then her career in motocross began,” he explained.
It was not easy at the beginning as the parents had to buy a US$2 000 bike and fork out another US$1 500 for race gear. Tanya then began to train with the help of Biggie Chitima (jnr).
In her first big competition in Marondera, she was pitted against 14 boys in The Pee Wee class and she finished 13, but as time passed, she improved remarkably, finishing 2nd on the final championship standings.
That was the first in the history of motocross in the country that a girl had finished that high in the competition.
“Tanya continued to improve her performances and in 2012 she finished second at the season ending Summer Series and the following year she had to jump from PeeWee Class to the 65cc B class, something that has never been done before in the history of the sport,” bragged Muzinda.
“Tanya finished first in the championship standings and that’s the time I decided to invite legendary female rider Stefy Bau to come and assist my daughter to prepare for the 2013 Summer Series and a marriage of a lifetime began,” he said.
Bau was impressed by Tanya’s exploits and eventually signed Tanya to her US-based academy, an arrangement that would ensure the girl becomes a professional motocross rider from Zimbabwe — another first.
In May 2014, Tanya wrote another chapter of her young life as she was appointed the European Union ambassador for Food Security in the rural areas and they also pledged to assist her blossoming motocross career.
The European Union has recently bought Tanya a new motorbike for racing as well as for use during the execution of her duties as an ambassador, which will be handed to her at a ceremony set for Donnybrook later this month.
Clearly, she is one girl who is destined for greatness, but what is her personal goal?
“Tanya’s dream is to become a professional rider and then become a world champion in motocross and it’s something I strongly believe that she can achieve,” her 37-year-old father said.
At home the girl who turns 10 later this month is like any other kid who helps her mother with the dishes at their Greystone Park home, plays with dolls and her two siblings, sister Alisher (5) and brother Jayden (2). She also loves watching cartoons.
Motocross is not her only gift, at school Tanya is a well-known long distance athlete and she is also in the hockey team.
She trains four times a week but her tight schedule has not impacted negatively on her school work as she continues to get good grades.
The next few years will see Tanya competing in more competitions in Africa before she eventually moves to Europe where she hopes to conquer the world.
Whether she will become a world champion motocross rider, only time will tell, but Tanya is the undoubted princess of motocross in Zimbabwe.
