Olympics 2024: All systems go as Lesotho’s taekwondo star Tau ready to charge

As she eagerly awaits her first fight at the Olympics on Wednesday August 7, taekwondo athlete Michelle Tau has appreciated the enormous support she’s received towards her journey to the prestigious games.

Tau, who terms taekwondo as a family sport, made a name for herself by being the first taekwondo representative from her country Lesotho to qualify for the Olympics in 20 years. She credits her partners Mchezo for the support, but is quick to recognise the role of her father John Tau, who passed away when she was young. The senior Tau was a national taekwondo legend.

The former beauty queen said she is upbeat after months of training, aiming to earn a medal in Paris.

“Everything is possible but it has not been easy to get to the Olympics. It requires a lot of sacrifices but with determination, dedication, prayer and good support, everything is possible,” noted Tau.

Her partners – Mchezo- a Rwanda-based company says that their aim is ‘investing in the future of sport and technology in Africa’, and are working in partnership with the government of Lesotho in supporting Tau in the run-up to the Paris Summer Games.

The firm helped Tau attend top taekwondo training centres and programmes in Germany and Spain soon after she qualified for the Olympics in the women’s under 49 kg category.

Tau achieved the milestone through winning at the African Qualifying tournament held in Dakar, Senegal over the weekend of 10-11 February 2024.

Her coach Hugo Tortosa, one of the youngest coaches at the Olympics aged just 24, said that her training this week will comprise “very specific work to the first fight.”

“In taekwondo you can only think about the first opponent because if you do not pass that round you cannot compete further, so we can’t think about other opponents at this time,” Tortosa added.

 “From the moment we were first introduced to her to this date, we at Mchezo have never once doubted her drive to excel. It was very clear from the word go that she was a cut above the rest, the kind of sports personality anyone can enjoy working,”Ntoudi Mouyelo said.