““What am I going to put in it, grandmother? The medals?” I wasn’t winning any money as a youth, and the medals themselves meant everything to me but they weren’t things we could sell, not that I ever would have sold them. “These medals, they symbolize your future wealth. I am telling you, Mokgadi, one day, they will turn into money that you can put it in the bank,” she said.
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“This was the first time I’d ever been to a shopping mall, the first time I’d even seen or been in an athletics-wear store. The store manager was sponsoring the athletes who were heading to the World Junior Championships. I’d never owned anything close to brand-new sports attire. They gave us a pair of sneakers, a pair of new track spikes, and a white and blue track suit. I was on top of the world.
“I traveled the next morning to my see my maternal grandmother. This is the grandmother I am named after. It is our custom that when we are to embark on a long journey, we must seek the blessing of our living elders as well as our ancestors. My grandmother and I prayed together. I could feel the joy, anticipation, anxiety, and hopes of my family. I was carrying the dreams of our people.
“I knew from what happened to my father and what I’d seen on television that a career in sports didn’t last forever. Athletes have a small window of time to work with their body. And injuries don’t care whether you are young or old. The important thing was that if running didn’t work out for me, I would at least have a diploma from a respected university that would help me get a job. That would be my future, I decided, but for now, I had to get faster.
“I knew I wanted to sign with him. Here was a man who never once mentioned money. To me, that was a real businessman. It wasn’t that I didn’t need money, because I did. But to this day, money doesn’t drive me. Money isn’t what pushes me to do this or that. It’s always been about something deeper. For me, it was about dignity, about pride, about the respect I freely gave to others and expected back in return. I may have been a young girl from a rural area, but my parents taught me to value myself, to never think of myself as less than anyone else, regardless of my background or circumstances.
““I told you I wasn’t going to make it this time, uncle. But I’m going to get you and the Nike people a gold medal at the Olympics next year.” Masilo smiled. He’d become a great friend by this point, more like a member of my family than the executive responsible for my sponsorship at a global company. “You do your thing, Caster. Rest now and you come back stronger next year. We are here for you. We believe in you.