Podcast 110: Courageous Survivor, Running Hero, and
TFS Success Story Honoree
GILBERT TUHABONYE
Posted December 19th, 2007 at 6:00 PM by Adam Jacobs
Section: News & Results, Marathons, Motivation, Books, Success Stories, Columns, Success Stories, Special Features, Interviews, Podcasts
TheFinalSprint.com (TFS) is honored to present our monthly Success Story award to individuals who have overcome tremendous obstacles, changed their own lives and/or the lives of others through running, sports or fitness. Past recipients of TFS’s Success Story award include female running pioneer Kathrine Switzer, father-and-son team of Rick and Dick Hoyt, and amputee athletes Oscar Pistorius and Rudy Garcia-Tolson.
I am proud to announce that TFS’s November 2007 Success Story, and my guest on Episode 110 of The Final Sprint Podcast is courageous survivor and running hero GILBERT TUHABONYE.
Born to a Tutsi tribe farming family in Burundi, a small mountainous country in east central Africa, just south of Rwanda, Gilbert grew up in the midst of the centuries-old war between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. In October 1993, the Hutu classmates at his school, their parents, some teachers and other Hutu tribesmen forced the Tutsi teachers and children into a room where they beat and burned them to death. After nine hours of being buried by the burning corpses of his beloved friends, and himself on fire and seriously injured, Gilbert jumped free of the burning building and ran into the night, the sole survivor of one of the most horrible massacres in the long Tutsi-Hutu war.
Gilbert, who now lives in Austin, Texas, has continued his efforts to try and compete in the Olympic marathon and is the award-winning coach of Gilbert’s Gazelles, a training group consisting of hundreds of dedicated runners of all skill levels. Gilbert has also created the Gazelle Foundation, with the mission of improving life for people in Burundi and offering educational assistance to children in Austin, Texas, where Gilbert, his wife Triphine and daughters Emma and Grace reside. His life story is captured in his book, This Voice in My Heart, a testament to the triumph of the human spirit as Gilbert emerges from the scars of his unimaginable ordeal to live a life of optimism, grace and victory.
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Host: Adam Jacobs | Guest: Gilbert Tuhabonye
Producer:Greg Cherniet
Music: Ryan Ahlwardt & Darnell Perkins
File size: 19.8 MB | Length: 26:53
Episode Sponsored By: Nike +
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,em>Photograph: Courtesy of Gilbert’s Gazelles
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Tags: africa, America, burundi, calories, challenge, distance, gazelle foundation, gilbert tuhabonye, gilberts gazelles, goals, hutu, inspiration, interview, ipod, long live running, marathon runner, nike, nike+, nike+ipod sportkit, nike +, nike plus, pace, podcast, progress, sponsor, Success Story, success story series, survivor, the final sprint podcast, thefinalsprint.com podcast, this voice in my heart, time, tutsi, United States
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The Final Sprint
[…] TFS Success Story Gilbert Tuhabonye To Run In London Burundi runner Gilbert Tuhabonye, who was awarded The Final Sprint’s Success Story Award in December ‘07, is featured in a BBC Sport article in the build-up to tomorrow’s race. As a teen, Tuhabonye survived a horrifying massacre in his village during a civil war in 1993. He is hoping to run a qualifying time and make it to Beijing in what he calls “tremendous message about forgiveness.” Read more at: [BBC Sport, UK][TFS Podcast] Focus On London Pacemakers Pacemaking, love it or hate it, is part and parcel of fast non-championship racing and London is one of the fastest. An article in The Zimbabwean focuses on Cuthbert Nyasango, one of the men who has been called upon to take on those rabbit duties. Read more at: [Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom] […]
April 12th, 2008 at 10:55 am