Meet 14-year-old with 261 swimming medals

Audrey Chebet, 14, walks to the deputy principal’s office, where her box of fame has been placed.

The cuboid fitted with glass sits at the corner of the office with four dominant colours: sky blue, green, red and a combination of Kenyan flag colours.

The storage is labelled with words that reflect her spirit: ‘She believed she could so she did. Never stop. Break the limits.’

Chebet is a Grade 10 student at Makini School. She starts her day at 5am, swimming for two hours.

“I train swimming for 16 hours a week and four hours gym from 4pm-5m, swim again from 5pm to 7pm,” Chebet said during an interview with the Star.

The young champ comes to the interview carrying a pink box file with more than 40 valuables, and these are not revision papers.

She is carrying certificates and printed awards which she has scooped since she was eight years.

“I began swimming at seven years but at the age of eight is when I competitively took part in the sport,” she said.

Chebet has arranged her medals in four categories: international, silver, bronze and gold.

From our count, she has 61, bronze 53, silver 69 and 33 gold, which she says are all a product of commitment and resilience.

“The challenge I have is that I am tired all the time. It takes a lot of energy to train, and I sleep really late and wake up really early,” she said.

At her age, most kids consume junk food, but that can’t happen for her. To maintain a fit body, she avoids fatty, oily foods, sweets and excess wheat.

In swimming, she takes part in any of the matches without specialisation, but her favourite is back stroke.

This is where lie on your back and flutter your legs while circling your arms in a windmill motion.

“I am too young to specialise. At this age I am expected to swim all my strokes, but as I grow older, I will specialise; I do not have a choice,” she said.

Chebet’s skills have been boosted by the school in terms of public recognition and motivation.

“When you participate, they mention you in the assembly, congratulate you and encourage you to continue doing what you're doing,” she said.

Her parents, on the other hand, have never questioned her participation in the game.

She said they support her talent and encourage her to train hard and learn more.

“They were very happy and proud. I think it was when I was seven, I had gone to Uganda, Kampala. That was the first seven years of swimming,” she said.

Her competitiveness has seen her visit four countries to represent her swimming team.

They include Uganda, Malawi, Tanzania and Sudan.

Still at Makini School, we meet Walter Mchana, whose publication on education received global recognition.

Mchana completed his KCPE and scored high marks, earning him a slot in a top national school in Kiambu.

Mchana was admitted but stayed in the school for only four months, after which he was transferred to the international curriculum.

Now in his final year at the Makini School, Cambridge campus in Nairobi, Mchana is a proud author of a journal that received international recognition.

“In November 2021 at Grade 10, I was appointed to be the global linkages ambassador, so I was dealing with relationships with the school and outside,” Mchana said.

Mchana was introduced to Yale young African scholars programme, which he applied and was successfully approved.

At the same time, he started looking for journalism programmes to work on during summer holidays.

“I love writing, so it did not feel like a burden while balancing my academics. I started the journalism programmes in summer, that is July and August,” he said.

Mchana stumbled on an international forum called Stanford Daily Journalism, workshop which he applied for.

He was elated with the requirements, which were non-academic but key aspects in extracurricular activities.

“I was put on the waiting list, so I was applying for a scholarship for the same workshop. It did not require any journalism experience, just the interest,” he said.

As he holds his 10-page journal, which was recognised globally, Mchana has a few months left before he finishes school.

He also holds three certificates which he received from Yale University, Stanford University and Havard University.

“I had both scholarships at the same time for eight weeks, while the other one was one week. I had end-term exams at the same time,” he said.

After the workshop with Stanford, he was expected to write an article that would be published by Stanford Daily.

Mchana said he has always had interest in writing and research. At his age, he picked a topic that would most people would relate with.

“So I went ahead and researched top countries that are doing well in their education system and what they are doing different,” he said.

For two months, he got an opportunity to learn about research and other global topics.

This experience is what triggered him to do his own first research on education.

"An interesting perspective I have about education is that cramming is not helpful. Personally, I used to do that and it is very dangerous," he said.

After submission, his article went through rounds of editing before the final copy was published.

Eventually it was published in the International Journal of Professional Educational Development.