Motocross Girl My Life

My name is Tanya Muzinda and I'm crazy for Motocross.

In a few weeks' time,

I'll travel over 5,000 miles from my home in Zimbabwe to England

to compete in the biggest race of my life,

in the UK Championship.

It's going to be tough.

But I will train as hard as I can to make my family and country proud.

Some people think girls can't ride, but that's not true.

I've been beating boys for years.

It hurts the boys so much to lose to Tanya

because she's just a girl and...

Most people say that motorsport is for boys.

She is competing against guys

and, like, it really makes me, as a girl, like,

"Wow, that's amazing."

Before we start the race,

some of the boys make fun of you and say,

"What is she doing here?

"She's supposed to be playing with Barbie dolls."

But when I beat them and show them that no,

I can still play with my Barbie dolls and still ride a bike.

I figured you might be a young boy because you've done very, very well,

but it's a young lady!

Motocross is a very dangerous sport.

I've got friends who've broken their collarbones,

their hands, their legs.

I mean, I've fallen plenty of times,

but I've never, ever went to the hospital.

You can get hurt doing anything,

but that doesn't mean that you can stop doing what you love.

Beating the boys has made me a household name

in my country, Zimbabwe.

And my mum keeps all the newspaper cuttings which are so embarrassing.

This is me, being awarded

as the youngest ever ambassador for the European Union.

And this is one of my favourites,

meeting the ten-times world champion Tony Cairoli.

This is me in my favourite pink dress,

winning the Zimbabwean International Women's Award.

All around the world, people are starting to know me bit by bit

and just the feeling that everyone comes to me

and saying, "You're Tanya, please may I have a photo with you?"

I sometimes feel like a celebrity.

And it makes me feel very happy!

CHEERING

I couldn't have done any of this

without my family, and here they are.

That's my dad, my mum,

my gogo, which means grandmother,

my brother Jaden, sister Alicia, and cousin Delroy.

And this is me.

This is Zimbabwe.

And this is where I live.

Zimbabwe is in Southern Africa,

which is an 11-hour plane journey to the UK.

This is the capital, Harare.

It is known as the Sunshine City.

Just like most capital cities, it has skyscrapers and busy streets.

But unlike most, it is also filled with animals.

It has giraffes, zebras, buffaloes and lots more.

I know that people fly thousands of miles from UK and Europe

just to come and see these animals,

but for me, it's just a 20-minute drive.

# Don't you know, girl?

# Don't you know, girl?

# I am the one for you. #

My friends, when they started knowing that I did Motocross,

they were really shocked and surprised

that I had spent years without telling them.

And they were always asking me, "Aren't you scared?

"Is it scary?"

And they've come plenty of times to come and see me,

and we do have times when we leave motocross

and go out and get ice cream

and just act like normal girls.

Tawana's one of my best friends.

And today, we're in our favourite part of town - Borrowdale.

I look disgusting!

No, delete it!

There was a myth, I think it was just a school myth

that if jacaranda falls on your head, you wish for something.

Ah, OK.

I wish for the new iPhone 8.

I wish for the iPhone X.

Perhaps what I should have wished for

is to win the next race

as things are about to get tough against the boys.

Well, today we're here at the Zimbabwe National Championships,

and I think it's a great practice for me

to get myself ready for the upcoming races in the UK.

Today I'm racing against the boys,

and I really want to put on a good show and do my best.

Emanuel is one of my closest rivals.

Today, I'm going to be racing against Tanya

and I think I'm going to beat her.

I've been watching her every move

so I know what she's going to do here and there.

There are three heats in these championships.

I'm the only girl racing.

The first heat didn't go quite as planned.

I got a puncture.

You had an accident!

-Are you tired?

-Baba?

Yeah? Yeah. Yeah.

You see that inside, you see that, when you overtook that guy?

You see he's going outside, you go inside.

You keep up that pace.

My dad is always on hand to give me advice,

and my gogo comes to give me more support when she can.

THEY LAUGH

Things seem to be going from bad to worse,

and I'm sure the boys are really happy about beating me,

and I just hope that on the next race, I'll do much better,

and I'm not going to give up.

The final race was my last chance of getting a spot on the podium.

The race is going well,

and I'm in position for a podium finish, but then...

A lapse in concentration turned out to be disastrous.

I fell down in the corner,

my leg wasn't out, and I had not leaned in for it,

so I made a mistake.

Falling off my bike was the worst thing that could happen.

Although I got back up and finished the race,

I missed out on the podium.

Today was not my best national,

but I'm sure the boys are really happy,

but I'm not going to give up.

It was fantastic, I got a bad start though,

but then I managed to fight back to third,

and I think Tanya finished fifth,

but it was all good for me.

She had bad luck.

It's early morning,

I just woke up and I'm feeling a bit sore from yesterday's race,

I didn't have that much sleep

because I was thinking about what happened yesterday

and when I crashed.

From that crash, I think something happened to my shoulder

but I think I'll go and see my trainer,

and hopefully by the time we go to the big race, I'll be fine.

Every morning at eight o'clock, I head to the gym with my dad.

It's a few minutes' walk from home.

So the race yesterday, how did it go for you?

It went well, I wouldn't say it was my best race.

-Why?

-Because the bike had problems and I also fell in the corner.

-You fell?

-Yeah.

-How's the shoulder feeling today?

Well, my shoulder is still a bit sore.

-So a little bit sore.

-Yes.

But you can move it?

If I move it, it's sore, I can feel something.

OK, stand up, let's do this.

Elbow at 90 and I want you to put pressure against my hand.

Is that sore?

-Yes.

-OK.

Touch where it feels sore.

There.

Nothing in here, hey?

-No.

-OK. That's good news.

Good. External out.

-That's not painful, hey?

-No.

Good. Just five of those, all right?

Four, keep that elbow locked in.

Last one. Five.

OK, change. Y.

T.

W. Good.

Squeeze... No, no, no, no, no, no, squeeze. Squeeze.

Back to I. We're doing five.

This, this is all good for postural control

so one of the most important things for being on the bike

is being able to stay on the bike, stay tall,

stay strong. Push-up.

Down. One.

Two. Perfect. That's two.

We know that the sports, motocross, it can be quite violent and it can,

that bike wants to throw you off.

It's good that she's learned how to fall, and that is hugely important,

and the stuff that we looked at today

was just to assess the level of pain

through the different movement patterns,

and it's a good sign today that she is feeling all right.

We can never get away from injuries,

it's just a case of, can we minimise the risk or the onset of it?

As an athlete, I'm supposed to have a healthy diet.

Which can be hard sometimes.

I love spending time in the kitchen,

cooking up my favourite meals with my mum.

She's got potential, sometimes she...

..searches for recipes and she comes, "Let's try this, Mum.

"I think I like this one,"

and we say, "Is it OK for your diet as well?"

And we try it, sometimes it comes out nice, sometimes...

THEY LAUGH

Sometimes, you know, you just have to eat it

because to impress her.

THEY LAUGH

With less than 24 hours before I leave for the British Championships,

my friend Tawana is here to give me moral support.

So what are you looking forward to when you get there?

I'm really looking forward about the races,

because it's, like, my first time racing against girls my age.

What about the food, are you looking forward to,

like, traditional English food?

Yeah, I heard that fish and chips is popular there.

-Yeah.

-And I really want to try the fish and chips.

So how do you, like, breathe in this?

This is, like, really hard.

And, like, really big.

Well, as you see, it's really tight on the cheeks,

but a trick that I saw to make it a bit more comfortable

is you grab these two and then just push it aside

-and then...

-So more breathing space, OK.

You can try it if you want to.

Just pull them apart like this?

Yeah.

And then you just...

Oh, yeah. It's gone on a lot easier.

Yeah.

Anyways.

Just do it for Zimbabwe, OK?

I will, yeah.

So I'm sleeping on this bed so we need to take this bag off.

OK.

THEY GIGGLE

I'm travelling to the UK with my mum and dad,

leaving behind the rest of my family which is always hard.

Are you going again?

Yes, we are going, Bubba, so you have to say goodbye.

-Bye.

-Bye-bye, guys.

All right. Bye, guys. Say, "Bye."

Bye, guys. Bye, Gogo.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye. Bye.

-Bye, guys. All right.

Be a good boy. I'll bring you the toys.

We're flying to Heathrow, and I've always wanted to visit London so...

We have a day of sightseeing planned before the competition.

Taxi!

# Held down, heavy now

# Living in the same town

# Trying to find something new

# Broken picture frame

# I've been frozen in

# Trying to find a better view

# This ain't real this ain't cool

# This ain't what I signed up to

# This ain't right It's no good... #

Here I am in London, next to the Big Ben,

London Eye and River Thames.

I'm loving it!

# And I've been here for too long

# Going through the same things

# I've been hurting too long Got to move on

# Say, I, I can't do this any more

# If everything is changing... #

This photo is for my friend, Tawana.

Me and Nelson Mandela.

A hero in the Southern Africa and he's also in London.

This is Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives.

I mean, I've never imagined myself or dreamed

that I'd be this close to the Queen's house.

I love the Queen because it's girl power!

Goodbye, London. Now, it's time to focus on why I'm really here.

The Girls' National Championships.

Next stop, Birmingham,

to stay with some friends we met through motocross.

Tanya's really good,

she's competitive when it comes to motocross.

It's really fun having Tanya in the house,

and we get to watch, like, funny stuff,

like motocross fails and try not to laugh.

It's night-time,

the night before the race,

and I'm feeling a bit nervous

so I think I might call my mentor, Stefy Bau.

She's a former world champion, the four-times world champion, and yeah.

-Hey, Tanya!

-Hello, Stefy.

I miss you!

-I miss you too!

-So are you ready?

Yes, I'm very ready, happy, but I'm a bit nervous.

Yeah, well, you know, it's normal to be a little bit nervous

but, you know, you can do this.

If it rains,

it is going to be really hard and slippery

so I need some advice for that.

The most important thing

is always to squeeze the bike, remember?

Always keep in mind that you have the ball between your knees.

-Oh, yes.

-Never let go, that's always important.

And I believe in you, 100% so, you know, let's do this!

Don't worry, Stefy, I will do my best!

All right, that's my girl!

-Yes!

-Bye-bye, Tanya!

Bye, Stefy, ciao!

Speaking to Stefy made me feel so good

because she is the best motocross female rider

and it just feels good to have that word of encouragement

from my mentor, coming from Stefy, it feels so good.

All that is left now is for me to get a good night's sleep

and give it 100% tomorrow.

May you give us a peaceful night.

Tomorrow, may you protect her as she races.

Give her strength to make it.

Amen.

Sweet dreams, eh?

Hm. Same to you.

When I'm riding my bike and I'm going really fast,

I can feel the wind blowing through my face

and especially when I jump, it's an amazing experience.

You can nicely see all the trees, the whole track,

especially when it's a really, really high jump.

Although sometimes you can get scared, like, "What if I fall off?"

but fear's not supposed to stop you.

Coming from Zimbabwe to England just to race is a bit intimidating

because I've heard plenty of things

that the girls in Europe are really, really fast.

So I'm just hoping that I'll be in the top 20,

and if I do better, we'll see.

My name's Pippa and I've been riding the dirt bike

since I was four years old.

My name is Farren, and I've been riding for six years.

I'm Ella, and I've been doing motocross for three years.

I love it!

These are some of my rivals on the track,

but off the track, we're all friends!

May the best girl win!

My nerves for the first race

are I feel like I have butterflies in my stomach.

But my parents are giving me words of encouragement.

Yes, because you are carrying Africa's hope here.

You see? So we want to see your concentration always look ahead,

squeeze the bike. OK?

Keep focused.

The nerves that I get while riding

is when we're on the start gate and everyone is revving their bikes.

It's 15 seconds, five seconds,

we're all staring at the gate

and I'll be just thinking that, "What if my bike switches off?

"What will be my next move into the next corner?"

BIKES REV

The start, I think it was a good start, I think, yeah, but...

I don't know what's happened on the corner there

because she looks like she was slowing a little bit,

I think she was maybe just being too careful.

So let's see what happens.

It's OK,

she's at fourth now, she's riding fourth...

..the first three riders, they're quite fast, hey,

so I think maybe after the second heat or the third heat,

I think she might be used to the track

because this is a totally new track, you know,

it's quite hilly, and, yeah, but she'll be OK.

She, she, she's doing fine.

I could see the first time she was quite scared, you know?

Yeah, especially the first race with the other girls,

this is a good step that we took, a very important step here,

because Tanya is a girl

so she needs to be used to be racing with the other girls.

The first race was good and I came fourth position,

and I wasn't expecting it.

And I think I'll try and do better on the next race.

The challenges were the hills,

and I've never ridden on this track before

so it was quite steep.

I thought I'd finished in fourth position,

but someone said I had to check

so follow me, and let's check together.

In motocross there's so many technical rules.

The girl that finished third failed a technicality,

which means I ended up third instead of fourth.

It makes me feel very happy

and that there might actually be a possibility of me on the podium

on third position or maybe second next time.

-What did you come?

-I think I was fourth.

If I didn't crash, I would've come...

Fourth?! Fourth?! That's not bad!

I would have come sixth if I didn't crash.

-I think I was eighth.

-I'll try and stay with you.

-Oh, yeah!

-Yeah, you've got to study them.

Study her tactics.

But I think Tanya done really well.

With one race left in the day,

I managed to better my position to third place,

enough to keep me on track for a dream podium finish.

Day two. I wake up focused and ready to give it my all.

I finished third in race four,

meaning it would come down to the final race

to get on the podium.

-Hey.

-Hi.

How was your race?

-It was good.

-Do you know where you came?

I think I was third.

Third?! Wow!

-What number did you?

-I have no idea.

-Me neither.

I had a good start but then I stalled it,

because I put it into neutral twice on the hill, so people went past me.

All I saw is that you went round me like...

-Covered me in mud!

-First came past me, second came past me,

then I went OK, where's third?

And I looked behind me and it was you, I'm like, "Oh! Wow!

"She's gone fast, this one!"

Coming from Zimbabwe,

how does it compare to the tracks, like, where you're from

and the tracks here?

Well, the tracks in Zimbabwe, we only have one track.

Is that why you came to England?

-Yes.

-Do you like it here?

-I love it!

-Yeah.

Do you race boys when you're at home?

Yes, we have plenty of boys.

When we race boys at the club, like, they don't like the fact

that they get beaten by girls,

so when they come off the track, they're all revving their bikes,

getting all upset that they're getting beaten by girls.

-Oh, yeah!

-Is there anything that scares you at motocross?

Like, you know, when you jump?

And then something just doesn't go right in the air.

-Start panicking...

-Exactly!

Yeah, I've been there! Quite a few times.

Do you, like, crash badly or not really?

-Once in a while.

-Well, I crash badly all the time.

Like, literally, I crash, like, literally every meeting.

If you don't, like, get back on,

then, like, you'll just be scared of it.

I've never been to the hospital.

Never?!

Have you been to the hospital?

Yeah, I've been to the hospital.

Yeah, I have and all.

If I ever come to Zimbabwe,

you're going to have to let me go to your house.

Yes, you should!

We'll have to race at the tracks!

# I hope when you take that jump

# You don't feel the fall... #

It's the final race of an amazing weekend.

Finish fourth or better,

and I would have achieved more than I could ever have hoped for.

A podium finish in my first-ever UK Girls Championships.

# Hope when the crowd screams out

# They're screaming your name... #

She really needs to stay on the bike,

she needs to be on the bike for us to get the podium.

# I

# I did it all

# I

# I did it all

# I owned every second that this world could give

# I saw many places

# The things that I did

# With every broken bone... #

I've done it! All that training and hard work has paid off!

A third-place finish.

I know, it feels great, because, you know,

Tanya has carried the hopes of so many little girls

and boys in Africa, you know?

So, so it means a lot.

And as you can see,

that she's actually managed to, you know, get a podium position,

you know, racing with the top,

you know, female racers in the UK, it's actually a great achievement.

-Well done!

-All right!

Ha-ha!

All right! That's my girl! Right!

# I owned every second that this world could give

# I saw many places, the things that I did... #

Being on the podium in Britain,

it means that it's possible some sponsors can also help me

because travelling to Britain from Zimbabwe,

it's really long and expensive,

so if I keep on winning in different countries,

more sponsors will come along with Team Tanya and my brand will grow.

# Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh

# Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh

# With every broken bone

# I swear I lived... #

For Zimbabwe, it means that anything is possible,

it doesn't matter where you're from, who you are, what you are,

anything is possible and...

It means that I've also raised the Zimbabwean flag high.

For my parents, it means that we didn't travel for nothing,

they put a lot of sacrifice in this, and this is my...

..my present to say thank you for all the support

that you've given to me,

and I hope that one day, I'll pay them back

for all the sacrifices that they did for me.

# Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh

# Oh-oh, oh-oh

# Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh

# Oh-oh, oh-oh I swear I lived

# Oh-oh, oh-oh, oh-oh, oh

# Oh-oh, oh-oh

# Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh

# Oh, oh-oh, oh-oh. #