Odile Ahouanwanou is set to be among the contenders for heptathlon gold at the World Athletics Championships this month, but things could have been very different for the reigning African champion.
Football was the 31-year-old’s first love, and she was good enough to play internationally for Benin.
But a lack of investment and support left many players in the West African country frustrated - an all-too-familiar state of affairs in the women’s game across the continent in recent years - and led to her quitting and focusing on athletics instead.
“I started very young with football because I have older brothers, cousins who played. At home we had a big yard, so we would always play football,” she told BBC Sport Africa.
“I was the captain of my club for years. I played for the Benin national team, but I was disappointed with football because of politics in Benin.
“In terms of women’s football, it’s not what I expected. As a result, I had to withdraw a little from professional football.
“I was still playing, but only for fun, and at the same time I was also doing athletics in primary and secondary school. I would often beat everyone but I just couldn’t see myself in athletics - it was all about football.
“Until one day in 2007, I became Benin national champion in the high jump and everything changed.”
Since then, Ahouanwanou has not looked back.
After building some stability in her new sport, it took a lot of convincing from her coach for Ahouanwanou to look at the bigger picture and opt to compete in the heptathlon.
The discipline pits women against each other in seven different track and field events; 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200m, long jump, javelin and finally the 800m.
The points earned in each race, throw and jump are then added up to find the overall winner.
“I discovered the heptathlon through my coach,” she added.
“He told me of the events and I said to myself, when is he going to finish listing them? Because he was going on and on - 100m, high jump, shot put… I said, ‘but when will it stop?’.”
After initial scepticism, Ahouanwanou began to embrace her new-found role.
“Well, I first did high jump, I won, and then I did the heptathlon and I finished third,” she said.
“And after that I got a scholarship that took me to Mauritius where I spent about seven months before the 2012 African Championships in Benin. I finished sixth in that championship and I was so proud because I had just started the event.”
Opening a new chapter in life has since stretched her physical and mental abilities to the hilt.
Ahouanwanou became the first Beninois to win a gold medal at the African Championships back in 2018, before retaining her title in Mauritius last month.
But despite being a renowned heptathlete on the continent, she still believes there is a lot of room for improvement.
“I think there are a lot of things that I still have to learn because...naturally I’m not athletic,” she admitted.