Paralympic athlete, daughter of the Malian musician Salif Keita and defender of the rights of people with albinism, Nantenin Keita multiplies the hats.

Paralympic champion in the 400m in Rio, she will be looking for a new medal in Tokyo during the Games which will take place between August 24 and September 5.

The smile is communicative, the speaking frank.

On the athletics track of Insep, in Paris, a few days before his departure for his 5th Paralympic Games, Nantenin Keita, 36, lends himself to the game of photography, sunglasses still on his eyes so as not to be embarrassed by the light.

"It's a bit of a rush at the moment," admits the bubbly athlete, one of the last days of which does not take place on the track, but on the side of the weight room.

Her bag is not yet ready, but she is fine-tuning a "sawtooth" preparation, because it is disturbed by repeated sprains.

“Even qualifying (for Tokyo) was not easy,” she admits.

However, she will be well aligned over 400m to get a medal, "whatever the color", five years after being crowned at the same distance in Rio.

Nantenin Keita, in Africa Hebdo

14:49

In front of the Insep, his name is displayed in large on a sign, recalling memories of Brazil.

But Keita is also the name of his father, Salif, a renowned Malian musician.

From him, she got her albinism, a genetic peculiarity that gave her white skin and made her visually impaired.

"With a visual impairment, you don't learn the same way"

Born in Bamako, she joined France at the age of two: "My father having grown up in Mali, he did not want me to have the same difficulties as him, whether in terms of society or education. With a visual impairment, we do not learn in the same way ".

As a teenager, she started by playing hand "but because of my sight, I caught the ball too late", then basketball, before discovering athletics thanks to a competition for the visually impaired.

Her progress will guide her, among other things, to three world champion titles (200 and 400 m in 2006, 400 m in 2015).

Nantenin Keita posing on the athletics training track at Insep, near Paris.

© Stephane de Sakutin AFP,

On the track, she runs without a guide and does not trust her sight, but in contrasting colors: "The tracks are often blue, red, and the lines drawn in white. I don't need to really know where I am, that I am at 190 meters, for example. I need to know that I am at the exit of the turn, that I am on the home straight ".

The contrast, the comparison, she also lived it in her daily life, by her skin color and her handicap.

“When I went to school, no one had the same skin color, so it wasn't surprising to have a different one. I had my own white. So I asked why I was being treated, looked at me differently. Same for the sight! I thought everyone saw like me and sometimes got into walls! "

Committed against discrimination against albinos

"Well surrounded", with her father as a model, Nantenin now helps albino children.

An "obvious" for her.

Through the association that bears their first names, Salif and Nantenin Keita, it is increasing operations around education or health, such as collecting sunscreen tubes to protect children in Mali.

Above all, she wants to raise awareness in the face of beliefs anchored around albinism which still lead to discrimination and crimes in Africa.

Nantenin Keita is not limited to sport.

She is committed against discrimination against Albinos.

© Stephane de Sakutin AFP,

"Albinos are said to have superpowers. Some say that the clothes of an albino child can increase a woman's fertility, that using her blood brings power," explains the young woman.

She humorously recalls that "personally, apart from eating haribos, I don't have any superpowers!"

With his difference for strength, Nantenin will seek in Tokyo to glean an ultimate Paralympic medal for what will be his last Games.

Before Rio gold, she had already obtained silver and bronze in Beijing in 2008 (over 200 and 400 m), then bronze in London in 2012 (100 m).

But none is above the other: "They all have their charm, like human beings".

With AFP

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