"The fact that I was into modelling and then into taekwondo, it was confusing for a lot of people. It still is," she told Olympics.com.

"Back then, as a girl going into taekwondo, a lot of people would just be like, 'this is not a girl's sport. This is like for boys. Do you want to be a boy? What are you trying to do?'

“They say to me, 'you look like a girl! When you are in modelling you have makeup, your hair is done, you are in heels, you are walking, you look soft, very soft, very poised, very composed'. Then here I am, they see me also in taekwondo, they are like, 'you fight, you are strong, how do you balance the two?'" added the athlete.

Tau's father, John Molise Tau, a national taekwondo legend, passed away when she was young, but she grew up admiring his medals. Her mother was in the national team along with her father.

"My dad, he’s like a hero in the country because he's been to the African Games championships. He has a World Military Games medal."

According to the athlete she is a very soft and shy person, but when she gets in the ring, she goes into beast mode. "I switch when I go into taekwondo. And then when I come out of it, I'm soft again. I feel like we have a lot of personalities, we are different beings, and we just need to explore who we are."

Tau's path to the Olympics became clear at the 2024 African Qualifying event in Dakar, where she reached the final of the women's -49 kg category.

"When I went to bed after qualifying, I was in shock. I always felt like I'm going to wake up, and it's going to be like a dream. Until I was like it's real, it’s happening," she says.

"Just to go to the Olympics and just to be on that mat means that everything is possible. It means that I'm just a girl from Africa, I'm from Lesotho, and today I would be on the mat of the Olympics, not everyone can achieve that," concluded the athlete.