Being a multipotentialite is quite exhilarating and at the same time hard to juggle all your passions, but for Sandrine Twagiramariya, this was all she had ever wished for. The 28-year-old says that while growing up; she had many dreams that she lost count on some as time went by. However, to date, she has managed to clutch on a few. After completing second school, she juggled training as air hostess, journalism and at the same time fitness coaching – and all were her passions. Speaking to Weekend Sport on Wednesday, Twagiramariya explained that she picked interest in pursuing a career as a flight attendant from a young age after traveling outside the country and observed smart services of air hostesses, and how they carried themselves in their line of duty. “This made me fall in love with the career and immediately after secondary school; I enrolled for a cabin crew course for two years.” For journalism, she loved listening and watching news all the time, she recalls, and this made her develop interest in this particular career. Before finishing her cabin crew training, it was a requirement for the participants to have experience in swimming and body fitness, a thing that didn’t come lightly but she had to do it because it was mandatory. “After finishing the swimming course, I started the gym part of it, which was the last before I was to be given an okay to start working as cabin crew fully,” she said. “I didn’t like the gym because I was slender, I felt like the exercises and some lifting were too much for me.” Nonetheless, she had to push on. In the process, she met a good coach who motivated her to keep on doing what she was doing. Through encouragement from different people, Twagiramariya found herself loving the exercises and before she knew it, she was obsessed. What inspired her most was seeing how her body was transforming, including the energy she was gaining compared to how she had started. After completing her internship, she was supposed to travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a job but it didn’t work out according to plan. “I thought I had an opportunity but little did I know this was a better chance for me to make it in the physical training field.” After this, she started coaching other people in private sessions and the overwhelming feedback from those who received her services was incredible, making her love what she was doing even more. With time, she started earning good money and was able to enroll at Mount Kenya University for a bachelor’s degree in mass communications, which she completed in 2018. “Because I had developed the passion in sports to another level, I decided to go back to school and learn journalism so that it can help me interlink the two fields.” She insists that knowledge in journalism was vital considering that she will be using media platforms to showcase her fitness talent as well as educating and helping people stay fit through TV and radio programs. Sailing through challenges As a woman, Twagiramariya says she has experienced challenges from both men and women shaming her just because she is into fitness coaching. “Some would fiercely approach me and ask why I was doing this to myself because no man would want to marry a woman who is masculine, just because I am into all kinds of exercise including weight lifting. The negative comments did not stop me, they came out of ignorance.” However, she adds that at times it can be a huge demoralization when one doesn’t know what they really want; it’s easier to be carried away by such damaging influence and myths. Achievements Twagiramariya started her journey as a professional trainer in 2016 when she was hired by AS Kigali football club as a strength coach. The job, she says, gave her networking opportunities and the experience she needed to secure bigger deals. Not long after, she also became a fitness trainer at Waka – one of the biggest fitness centres in the country. The following year, she launched a TV program known as ‘Fit for Life’, which was aired on Rwanda Television. The show mainly educated viewers about exercises they could do at home. Later, she launched another TV program ‘Morning Boost’ on the national broadcaster’s entertainment channel KC2. In 2018, she managed to partner with the City of Kigali as one of the fitness coaches for the famous Car-Free Day public exercises where about 4,000 participants take part twice a month. Her biggest moment so far? President Paul Kagame attending one of her sessions. Financially, she notes that she is not only independent but she is also in position to give a hand to those who need her help.
