Rise of the Rebel 2024: Home is where the pride is

Our goal for this year’s Rise of the Rebel is to raise funds to help the women and families affected by gender-based violence and bring further awareness to the issue. This is why we have chosen Anglicare as this year's charity. Anglicare works in various areas, but the money we raise will be directed towards its work helping those affected by gender-based violence in our local area.

We'd like to tell you a story about an Olympian named Agnes. Agnes came up in conversation with the coaches when we were discussing how to format the day. Her story, as you will hear, is devastating and does bring up a larger picture of what’s going on in the world.

Agnes Triop was born on 23rd October 1995 and was an Olympian and long-distance runner for Kenya. She had numerous achievements and record-breaking performances. She specialised in the 5,000-metre and cross-country events. Tirop won a bronze medal at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships in the 10,000 metres and set a world record in 2021 for the women-only 10-kilometre road race, completing it in 30:01. She also won gold at the 2015 World Cross Country Championships, making her the second-youngest woman to win this title since 1985.

Agnes was not only a world-renowned distance runner but also an Olympian. She represented Kenya at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where she competed in the 5,000 metres, finishing in fourth place with a time of 14:39.62. Her Olympic participation underscored her elite status in long-distance running and her drive to represent her country at the highest level of competition.

She was well on her way to becoming an excellent athlete for Kenya & one of the best in the world.

Then, 5 weeks after setting the new world record in the 10km road race. Agnes was found stabbed to death in her own home, allegedly by her husband, who is still standing trial. It later emerged that the abuse had been going on for a lot longer than anyone knew.

Agnes’s death shocked the world of athletics and opened many people's eyes to gender-based violence not only in Kenya but across the globe. 

Out of this tragedy, Tirops Angles was born. This group is doing amazing things in Kenya to help “change society from the inside.” They go to schools and athlete camps to educate young women about gender-based violence. Most of their work is in Kenya, but it is spreading to the rest of Africa and the rest of the world.

If this can happen to world-class athletes, it can happen to anyone. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes a high-profile case like this to bring it to attention more and more.

Over her short career, Agnes won 11 medals in various races. We will take these 11 medals and turn them into ‘Girl’ workouts. For this year’s Rise of the Rebel, we will be performing 11 Girl workouts over the day. We hope this honours Agnes and helps raise awareness around gender-based violence in our community further.

We will do our best to attach further stories to each workout to bring things more local and give us something to focus on each time we perform a rep.

What can you do from here?

1) Come get involved on the day, 16th November!
It will be a full day of workouts & we'd love a large amount of you there to get uncomfortable & challenge yourself with the whole day
Clearly we have lives outside the gym as well so if you can only be around part of the day, this is cool. We'd love to see you whatever

2) Donate
Last year we raised over $10k! We'd love to do the same this year
So take the link to the donations page & send it to friends, family, collegues to get them to sponsor YOU to do the day & to further spread the word

3) Buy a Survival Pack - ONLY 2 LEFT!
Check out the sponsors below who have donated parts to the packs!
All money raised from these will be donated on to our total
We've already raised $1320! with these
Once the Survival Packs are gone, you will still be able to purchase the food options from Artiga. But we do need to know these numbers asap so we can give Artiga time to sort them out, so dont wait till closer to the time

4) Share on Socials
Spread the word! We can effect what happens inside the walls of the gym, but outside the gym we need your help to get the message out there!
Post about the event
Share the donation link
Take photos/videos on the day
Tag us, our sponsors, Anglicare