How Geoffrey Rotich guided sister Nancy Koech to Paralympic medals

Geoffrey Rotich’s dedication to his younger sister Nancy Koech has helped her see a path to Paralympic glory.

Koech was born blind, but Rotich has served as her running guide and together they have won two Paralympic medals in athletics.

“Since she was young, I have always been her eyes because I went everywhere with her,” Rotich told BBC Sport Africa.

Growing up, Koech did not have it easy because, of the 11 children in her family, she was the only one born blind.

“People would gossip about me in the village and say ‘What will happen to this child when she’s an adult, how will her life be because she is blind?” Koech, 35, told the BBC. “I would ask my mother, ‘Why did you give birth to me? I wish I wasn’t born.’ My mother’s response would be to cry.

“But as I grew older, I realised there are other blind people, and I cannot blame anyone for my condition. It was God’s will.”

Her parents tried to find medical solutions but were told Koech’s blindness could not be reversed.

While some in her village in Kenya ridiculed her, at home she was always supported.

“I told myself I would never hide my child because there are some in our culture who do hide children with disability,” Koech’s father, Johnstone, explained to the BBC.

“There were times she was bullied in the special school we took her to, but we encouraged her because I know life has its challenges.”

Once ostracised by some in her village in the south-west of Kenya, Koech is now its shining light following her success on the track.

Her father and brother both competed over 400m, so perhaps it was no surprise when she also developed a love for track and field in primary school.

She began as a sprinter, but blind para-sprinters need a guide.

Struggling to find one, she switched to compete in the long jump until Geoffrey stepped in.

“I used to run the 400m in school and when I completed my secondary school, someone approached me to be his guide and he is the one who introduced me to Paralympics,” Rotich explains.

“That is where I first learned what it takes to be a guide and when my sister completed her primary school, I told her we should work together.”

Koech was excited to work with her older brother because he “understood” her and while the two already had a familial bond, a new one was now added because runner and guide are literally tethered together.

“At home we are brother and sister but, on the track, it is a different relationship. We are more serious,” Rotich says.

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