FALLING in love with a sport like cycling, one that is not all that common in their community, made friends Qaphelani Dladla (16) and Lindokuhle Ngubo (15) determined to achieve stardom and bring medals back to their community.
Qaphelani said: “Cycling is said to be a ‘white people’ sport and some members in our community laugh at us and tell us we should just play soccer. However, we chose to follow our dreams and ignore what people say,” he said.
Lindokuhle explained that the pair have even received threats from the community, saying that they had been told to not come in certain places to train on their bicycles because they will get what they are looking for.
“They told us to use the pavement when we are training, and the people who are using the pavement tell us to use the road where anything that has wheels are, but the drivers are also giving us a hard time,” he explained.
“Those are the challenges that we come across each and every day but we don’t care anymore because we know where we are headed with our sports,” said Qaphelani, who further said that if they were to dwell on what people have been saying about them, they wouldn’t be where they are today.
“The love we have for it has pushed us this far and we can’t let people take that away from us,” added Lindokuhle.
In conclusion, the duo said that their message to the public is: “Don’t listen to what people are saying about you because if you do, you will never achieve your true dreams.”