Biography

Call 1.800.966.1380 to contact Gilbert Tuhabonye booking agent, publicist, manager, pr firm, representative and management company for booking Gilbert Tuhabonye speaker appearances, autograph signing, endorsement deals or hiring Gilbert Tuhabonye as a keynote speaker for your next event. Find Gilbert Tuhabonye official website information, speaker fees, booking fees, costs and schedule. Gilbert Tuhabonye was born on November 22, 1974, in the southern county of Songa in Burundi, a small mountainous country in east central Africa. He is the third of four children. His parents were part of the Tutsi tribe and were farmers by profession. They kept milk cows and raised potatoes, peas, corn and beans.

His love of running was forged early. Gilbert loved to run everywhere. He ran to the valley’s edge to get water for his family. He ran to school, five miles away, and he loved to race his friends. His favorite thing to do was to chase his family’s cows. He was baptized as a Catholic in the sixth grade and moved 150 miles away the next year to board at a Protestant school in Kibimba.

While attending the Kibimba school, Gilbert began running competitively. Running barefoot, he won an 8K race while only a freshman. As a sophomore, he met a man who taught him how to change his running technique by getting his knees up and holding his arms correctly. The coach encouraged him to work hard and try for the Olympics. Gilbert became the national champion in the 400 and 800 meters as an 11th grader. As a senior, Gilbert was already an extraordinary runner whose goal was to get a scholarship to an American school, get an education and return home to Burundi. But fate had another plan for Gilbert.

In October 1993, the centuries-old war between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes erupted in horrific reality one afternoon as Gilbert and his classmates were in school. The Hutu classmates at the Kibimba school, their parents, some teachers and other Hutu tribesmen forced the Tutsi children and teachers into a room where they beat and burned them to death. After nine hours of being buried by the corpses of his beloved friends, and himself on fire, Gilbert jumped free of the burning building and ran into the night, the sole survivor of one of the most horrible massacres in the long Tutsi-Hutu war.

Now, years later and more than 8,000 miles from Burundi, Gilbert Tuhabonye is a celebrity in the world of running. He went on to graduate college at Abilene Christian University where, despite being covered with scar tissue from his extensive burns, he was a national champion runner. A winner of Texas Citysport’s “Best of Texas 2005” award, Gilbert is now, by all accounts, the most popular running coach in Austin, Texas, where he and his wife Triphine and daughters Emma and Grace live.

In addition to coaching and training runners, Gilbert Tuhabonye enjoys speaking to groups of all ages and backgrounds. He speaks English, French, Swahili and his own native Kirunde.

Gilbert co-authored the book "This Voice in My Heart: A Genocide Survivor's Story of Escape, Faith, and Forgiveness", which recounts his journey from holocaust in his native Burundi to hero in his adopted homeland. Full of grace and dignity, this is a story like no other, a story that must not be forgotten.

PFP Sports & Celebrity Talent PFP is a speakers bureau and booking agency providing Gilbert Tuhabonye speaker, personal appearance and endorsement information. Booking Gilbert Tuhabonye for appearances, as a motivational speaker, keynote speaker, for a fundraising event, grand opening, television or radio commercial, PR campaign or trade show is easy through our agency. For more info, contact Gilbert Tuhabonye through PFP Sports & Celebrity Talent at 1.800.966.1380.