“I wish to be like Simone Biles,” Eric Mayanja says dreamily.
The young boy’s path to becoming a professional gymnast is daunting, given the obstacles in his path. He has to make do with some old mats that he uses outdoors for his flips because he doesn’t have a gym to train in.
What the teenager from Katwe, one of the largest impoverished slums in Uganda, and his American superstar idol share is a deep passion and commitment to the sport.
Mayanja’s love of a sport he discovered only three years ago has him spending most of his time in the open spaces of the slum, located on the outskirts of the capital, Kampala, doing backward rolls and jumping in his bare feet.
He’s one of the children from the area who are part of the Katara Arts Gymnastics Club. They use gymnastics to show the power of going after your dreams, regardless of their circumstances.
