Mozambique: Maria de Lurdes Mutola calls for commitment to girls and women in sports – Watch

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Mozambique: Maria de Lurdes Mutola calls for commitment to girls and women in sports – Watch

12:30 CAT | 21 May 2025

Photo: Gueta Chapo/Facebook

Former Mozambican athlete and 800 metres record holder Maria de Lurdes Mutola yesterday called for a commitment to strengthening women’s sports in Mozambique, as a way of minimising early pregnancies.

“As everyone knows, Mozambique is a country with [disadvantaged] girls in families, sometimes they get pregnant very early, and through sport we believe that (…) it can help a lot to delay this process of early pregnancies,” Mutola said after meeting First Lady Gueta Chapo in Maputo on Tuesday.

Maria de Lurdes Mutola stressed that the development of sports in the country, especially women’s football and athletics, could help to reduce this problem, when taken as a priority for the integral growth of youth.

“It is very important to take care of our girls, our young women in the country”, she stated.

To support girls in vulnerable situations, Mutola, who is now 52 years of age, reported that two homes were built in Magude, in Maputo province, through the Lurdes Mutola Foundation, which she created in 2001.

“We want to continue in this area, to see if Mozambique continues to grow,” she added.

Maria Mutola won the Olympic title in the 800 metres at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, and the World title in Edmonton, in 2003, in addition to securing several triumphs in free and indoor track throughout a career that spanned more than 15 years.

In addition to breaking the women’s indoor 1,000 metre record in 1987, Maria Mutola also holds the African record for the 1,000 metre outdoor race and the African record for the 800 metre outdoor race.

In 2017, Lurdes Mutola received an honorary doctorate from Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the largest university in Mozambique, in recognition of her “noble and unique achievements”. She had already in 2008 received the Mozambican government’s honorary “Hero of Labour” title, and the following year received an honorary doctorate from the Pedagogical University of Mozambique.

Source: Lusa