Stency Neema (right) and Julietta Moipo after their training at Parklands sports club on July 30,2024.
Twenty-two year-old Julietta Moipo from Laikipia is a living testimony of the saying that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade instead of complaining.
As a young girl, she suffered an accident at the family homestead in Laikipia East when she was three years old, which turned her life upside down.
She fell from the table, breaking her right arm, but she did not get medical attention immediately since her parents were away.
With her father James Moipo away at work, her mother Maria Piriano took her for a medical check-up the following day at a hospital in Nanyuki.
But again there was another challenge. Her family couldn’t immediately afford advanced treatment necessary, and her arm got a bad infection, leading to amputation from the shoulder.
Stency Neema (right) and Julietta Moipo during their training at Parklands sports club on July 30,2024.
“I stayed in that hospital for a long time without getting medication which I required almost immediately, during which my hand caught an infection, leading to amputation,” she says, tears streaming from her eyes.
“It’s something that I don’t like talking about, but God has been good to me.”
Moipo would struggle to write using her left hand at school, something that affected her progress at school. She had started elementary education at Endana Primary School in Laikipia County at the age of eight, sat Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exams in 2018, then joined Muhotetu Girls High School in Rumuruti, Laikipia County.
“I had so many challenges at Muhotetu, which was a boarding school. Although the school did everything to make me feel comfortable, I wasn’t able to even wash my clothes given my physical impairment, which made me uncomfortable among my peers.
Stency Neema (right) and Julietta Moipo during their training at Parklands sports club on July 30,2024.
“Fellow students would get tired doing things for me, and it made me feel sad. I couldn’t even pursue my athletics passion,” she says. Moipo would later be transferred to Milimani Secondary School in Samburu, which is a day school, and sat her Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Examination in 2022.
It’s after finishing her secondary school education she met para taekwondo athlete Patrick Lalkalepi, who introduced her to the game, opening a whole new chapter in her life.
Moipo briefly trained under coach Francis Odak, who runs taekwondo club in Nanyuki before later joining national team coach Philip Khaemba in Nairobi.
A huge opportunity came for para taekwondo athletes when the African Taekwondo Olympic Qualification Tournament was held in Dakar, Senegal in February this year, and Moipo grabbed it with both hands. The tournament also doubled up as a qualifier competition for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
“Khaemba told me that I had to take a shot at the event, and we started serious preparations for the event,” Moipo, who found herself with no opponent in her category at the continental event, says. This effectively meant she had qualified for 2024 Paralympic Games without a single kick.
Moipo was handed the ticket in the under-57 category to the Paris Paralympic Games alongside her fellow countrywoman Stency Neema. Coincidentally, Neema’s opponent from Egypt also backed out of the trials.
Moipo and Neema will be out to make history as the first Kenyan women to compete in para taekwondo at the 2024 Paralympic Games.
“I am so grateful for this opportunity that is bound to change my life forever, not only in sports, but also that of my family,” said Moipo. “My speed, accuracy and the general understanding of the game have improved greatly.”
Moipo hopes that competing in Paris will open doors for her to compete in other major championships like the Commonwealth Games, and the World Championships.
“I can’t promise any medal but after watching video clips from past events in my category, I believe something good is in the offing,” said Moipo, who feels no pressure to excel as she prepares for Paris.
Moipo has been preparing at the Parklands Sports Club under coach Khaemba and her sparring partners Milka Akinyi who competed in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics, Edna Shichangi and Jully Msangi.
“Akinyi, Shichangi and Msangi are my role medal models. I have improved a lot in the game because of them,” said Moipo.
Khaemba said that he started training both players last year but this is the first time they are in residential training.
Khaemba describes Mopipo as their surprise package owing to her great improvement over the months.
“Her biggest weakness was core training and we tackled that through good strength and conditioning, and diet,” said Khaemba.
Khaemba noted that her improvement posed a big challenge owing to the extra energy and zeal in training, hence the move to have her spar with strong and experienced athletes.
“We thought she would run out of breath but that has in turn given her good endurance in the ring. She is now supple and good when it comes to scoring,” said Khaemba, adding that Moipo latches on every opportunity in the ring to collect all the points that comes across.
“Her best scoring position is her round kicks that are accurate and she is quite intelligent when searching for them since they carry more points,” said Khaemba.
