Kilian Jornet's new signing: the runner breaking barriers in Africa

BarcelonaJoyce Muthoni Njeru's destiny was written at birth, even if she didn't know it. Born at more than two thousand meters above sea level in the Kenyan interior, she used to run to school on those cold mornings surrounded by fog. The first daughter of five siblings, she followed the achievements of Kenyan athletes in marathons and Olympic Games on television, although she was destined to shine in a discipline that few people knew about in Kenya at the time: mountain running.

Joyce Muthoni Njeru has just joined NNormal, the sports equipment brand founded by Kilian Jornet and Camper in 2022. Since she created NNormal, Jornet was clear that she wanted it to be more than just a sportswear brand. She wanted to reflect on how to compete without polluting and on how we do things and surround herself with special people. Njeru is one of them. Having become one of the mountain athletes of the moment, she continues to add triumphs, but always keeping her feet on the ground. One of the reasons why the 27-year-old runner came to NNormal is precisely her commitment to the rural communities in the area of Kenya where she was born. Her goal is to always help children so that they do not stop studying and can face the future with optimism.

“My mother was a runner. She enjoyed it, but she didn’t get any support. It’s always been more difficult if you’re a woman,” Njeru explained in a talk in Nairobi. Her mother’s support was key, although she has worked hard to become a professional. In her case, she was also inspired by Lucy Wambui, the first African to be a world champion in mountain running, in 2018 and 2019. “She’s my role model, I draw inspiration from her,” explains Njeru, who started doing trails at the age of 12, when she went from school to school and to the village of Ki. It’s an area on a plateau above two thousand metres and full of hills. An ideal place to find good mountain runners. But in Kenya, until two decades ago, this discipline, which was born in Europe, was hardly known. Njeru’s first race was almost by chance. She saw that the charitable foundation of Henry Wanyoike, a well-known local Paralympic champion who wins medals despite being blind, was organising a five-kilometre race up the mountain. She signed up and won, and caught the attention of a local athletic club.

The difficulty of being a professional

It would be the start of a spectacular career, although he has not managed to become 100% professional until recently. That is why he joined the army to have a steady salary and a job that would allow him to stay fit. In fact, in his first nine years of sports career he was not a professional. "It has been difficult, especially when it comes to competing abroad, as it is necessary to look for sponsors," he explains. Njeru has won the World Mountain and Running Athletics (WMRA) World Cup in 2021, 2022 and 2023, and has recently achieved successes in the most renowned races on the international circuit, such as the Broken Arrow 2024 (United States) and the Golden Trail Series 2. mountain race organized by Salomon. And he has done so just the year that in the men's category he beat an African who is already part of the NNormal team, the Moroccan Elhousine Elazzaoui. The brand founded by Kilian Jornet, therefore, rethinks how to make clothes and takes care of athletes with social projects, but is also incorporating some of the best runners of the moment.

Known for her explosiveness on climbs and her ability to adapt to technical terrain, Njeru has proven to be one of the most consistent runners in recent years. "I am very excited to join the NNormal team, a brand that not only cares about performance but also about the impact it generates. I completely identify with its philosophy and I want to share many kilometers together," said Njeru, who is involved in several social and educational projects in Kenya. "My mother has always helped me. She accompanied me in races, she talked to me. Now I want to help young people, I want to tell them that they should try to fight but they should not stop studying," she says. In recent years the runner has been especially involved in the fight to help young people and women at risk in Kenya, a country with a lot of gender violence. Thanks to their projects, they are able to deliver food to women who have been widowed and cannot find work, they provide sanitary pads to schools, they pay school fees for children in need and they buy food, educational material and other utensils for nurseries. In fact, the NNormal team is already working to support their new signing in the projects he looks after in his home area. He has not forgotten how hard it has been for him to succeed, so he wants to help the youngest ones.