Malagasy sport has known illustrious personalities since the independence of the country in 1960. Among them, a woman would mark her discipline and even sport in general: Rosa Rakotozafy, Olympian, double gold medalist of the African athletics championships, and currently a senior manager at the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Madagascar. The “Lady” of Malagasy sport is among the most popular and influential people in the country, and she owes her performances and success to herself. Here is her portrait.

Born in Fianarantsoa in the south-central of Madagascar 43 years ago, Rosa Rakotozafy is one of the most emblematic sportswomen on the island; first, by her high-level career on the track, but also by her efficient reconversion to the professional sports world in which she had managed to maintain herself for eight years and three different regimes due to her commitment and her assumption of responsibility.

The athlete – specialized in 100m hurdles and 200m first – stood out by reaching the finals of the Francophonie Games held in Antananarivo in 1997. At the time, she was just 20 years old and was later awarded a scholarship, sending her immediately to the International Center of Athletics of Dakar for six years of intense training and improvement (1997 - 2003).

The results were felt quickly when, in 1998, Rosa won a Gold medal during the Indian Ocean Islands Games held in Reunion. From then on, she consecutively participated in several international sport events with different degrees of success.

In 1999, the Fianarantsoa woman engraved her name in the annals of Malagasy athletics by winning the national record of the 100 metres hurdles in 12 seconds 84 during a competition in Niort, France, and the national record of the 200 metres in 23 seconds 09 in Pretoria, South Africa.

To date, her achievement as a double record holder has not yet been surpassed. Qualified for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, then as the flag bearer of the Malagasy delegation four years later at the Athens Olympic Games, Rosa had undoubtedly won her two best medals at the 2002 African Championships and 2004. At both events, she made it to the top step of the podium. Her affiliation with the Darra Atletica Vigevano Athletics Club in Milan (2003-2005) and her training in high-level sports in Heidelberg in Germany between 2003 and 2004 had undoubtedly been beneficial to her.

To her rich athletic career was added another gold medal at the 2011 Islands Games in Seychelles, and a bronze medal at the African Games in Maputo, Mozambique the same year, after winning it in 2006. The following year, she finished fifth in the final of the African Championships in Benin. In the meantime, she was gradually preparing her reconversion for the professional scene.

She was first a member of the Malagasy Olympic Committee as a representative of the Olympians from 2009 to 2014. She took the leadership of the Association of Olympians of Madagascar in 2012 and is still its president today. Rosa joined the Cabinet of the Ministry of Youth and Sports from 2012 to 2014. In 2014, she was appointed Director of Federal Sport by former Minister of Sports Anicet Andriamosarisoa.

Having become an expert and national correspondent of the Conference of Francophone Youth and Sports Ministers (COFNEJES) since 2014, she was also part of the 2016 class of the Center for Diplomatic and Strategic Studies of Madagascar (CEDS) and presided her cohort.

After the change of regime and the advent of Tinoka Roberto at the head of the Ministry in 2019, Rosa became General Director of Sports. Her office is based at the Ministry headquarters at the Place Goulette in Antananarivo. Rosa is the first-ever Malagasy woman appointed to endorse such responsibilities.

Mother of 3 children, Rosa Rakotozafy is fully involved in the world of sport and wants to bring her high-level experience. Before joining the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2012, she had lent a hand to other sports federations including judo, petanque and basketball when they organized continental competitions in the early 2010s.

As a generous athlete, Rosa Rakotozafy was omnipresent during the epic of the Barea during the 2019 AfCoN in Egypt. She is the image of sport; she is the one who wins and improves. In September 2020,

Rosa was elected President of UNESCO’s Inter-Governmental Committee for Physical Education and Sport (CIGEPS), with 5 vice-president countries including Russia, Tunisia, Cuba, Bulgaria, Japan. She is also the first woman to hold this position since the creation of the committee in 1978.

The champion's journey demonstrates a striking reality: there are no miracles in sport and in life in general. Her watchwords were: training, capacity building and retraining. It is all about hard work. Nothing comes by chance. She is ambitious, she wants to go far. At any rate, she does not intend to stop where she is currently.