While watching the very best on the planet battle it out for gold at any Olympic Games event is inevitably an exhilarating spectacle, sometimes an individual's story of how they got there is as captivating as the extraordinary feats themselves.

Another athlete to have recently written her name into the history books with a remarkable tale to tell is the 24-year-old Kenyan-born athlete Winfred Yavi who smashed the Olympic record in the women's 3000m steeplechase on Tuesday to claim gold for Bahrain. 

Yavi clocked a stunning time of 8:52.76 in a race that witnessed four women register sub-9 minute times all eclipsing the previous mark of 8:58.81 set by Russia’s Gulnara Samitova-Galkina in Beijing 2008.

It was Bahrain's first gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and the third-ever gold for the Gulf nation. What makes it even more special, however, is that Yavi was rejected by the Kenyan Olympic Team after numerous attempts and so instead chose to represent Bahrain.

“This is like a dream come true. It’s something special. It means a lot to me and also to the country,” said the 24-year-old after her win.

Though hailing from Makueni County in the former Eastern Province of Kenya, Winfred Yavi was consistently rejected in her attempts to represent Kenya and so relocated to Bahrain and represented the country through naturalization.

"The reason why I didn’t get the chance to represent my country is that I used to go for the Kenyan team trials, and I didn’t qualify. Getting Bahrain was then my first priority, but I was ready to represent my country,” she said.

"People questioned the move; some people were worried if I would live up to my dreams and deliver. It was complicated because everyone had something different to say. I was still not a professional, but I was able to handle it."

Soon after clinching the gold medal, Yavi was then getting a shoutout from rapping superstar and now Paris Olympics icon Snoop Dogg who said "Snoop Dogg here with the gold medalist, my baby know how to run, run, run!"