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| Photo by Virginie Roussel
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Latifa runs, hops, skips and jumps, gracefully
but with extraordinary power, changing her life
and that of her family in an instant. Her shoes
are not the latest model; in fact, for most of her
17 years she did not even own a pair of shoes. The
ones she wears now are quite worn, and she has no
sponsor. But she does have a burning desire to better
her family’s living condition. With the medals
she hopes to win, she knows her future has great
possibilities. But with the prize money that comes
with her medals, this young Moroccan woman of 17
could feed her entire family.
On the 18th of June, Latifa Ezziraoui jumped just
over 42 feet, blowing past the previous junior national
record for the triple jump to within shouting distance
of the world record. Could she have inherited the
physical qualities of the great champions of the High
and Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco? No, Latifa
only knows flat ground; she grew up in a crowded working
class district, hardly more than a slum, of Casablanca,
the noisy and noxious business capital of Morocco.
Latifa lacks everything, everything but the desire
to compete and to take care of her family.
Her father, who was a shoemaker, became a night watchman
in an apartment building 14 years ago because it was
a chance for him to leave home from 7 pm to 7 am,
when he could give up his bed to his growing daughter,
Latifa. With her brother, the four of them live in
a single room of 110 square feet, which serves as
living room, kitchen and bedroom. In the evening after
dinner, her mother removes the small coffee table,
which covers the dishes, to put her mattress down.
Because of the unemployment rate plaguing the country,
her 22-year old brother Brahim still has not been
able to find work. Latifa had always done well in
school, but saw that a good education was no guarantee
of a job after graduation. When Latifa told her father
that she would not continue her studies but instead
would devote her life to the race, her father burst
into tears. But what else could his daughter do to
earn money honestly?
Latifa was eight years old when she set foot on the
grounds of a stadium for the first time and decided
she would become a champion one day. Still, it would
be another seven years before she began formal training.
Her first trainer, Mustafa Ghazi, a national class
runner in the 1500m and the 800m during the 1980’s,
remembers: "Latifa suffered so much, seeing her
parents worn out by grinding poverty. She realized
that the race was the only way out of poverty for
her and her family." As the young teenager did
not have any sporting equipment, he offered her the
first pair of tennis shoes.
As she grew up, she ran and trained like the other
children but without the appropriate diet. She did
not eat steak every day – in fact, she had never
eaten red meat, not because she was a vegetarian,
but because her family could never afford it. Dairy
products and fruit were rare treats. Usually she took
a glass of mint tea, bread and butter for breakfast,
occasionally jam or cheese. She could not afford to
take the bus to track practice, so she walked the
three miles each way to the stadium. Whenever he could,
her trainer/coach gave her a ride home on his old
motor bike.
Along with her junior national gold medal, Latifa
Ezziraoui won 7,500 dirhams (US$800). The average
monthly salary of her father is 1,300 dirhams (US$140).
Half of it goes for the rent of the single room with
communal toilets. The other half feeds the family.
With the money she got from her last medals, Latifa
bought a VCR for her parents and some nice fabric
to re-cover the old sofa.
Thanks to her records in the relay race, the long
jump and the triple jump, Latifa left the Hayat Athletic
Club of Casablanca - one of the four best sports clubs
of Morocco – to join the National Athletics University
of Rabat a year ago. Today, June18th, her mother silently
watches the competition, to see Latifa win her medals.
It is the first time she has come to the stadium to
see her daughter, a daughter who has made her family’s
life a bit better and who has an enormously bright
future, with strong possibilities for making the Moroccan
Olympic Team in 2004.
Photo legend
Latifa has two years of training facing her to beat
the record world of triple jump of 47 feet, 11 inches,
held by a Bulgarian since 1996.
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