Impact Sport prepares athletes for the longest race

Halimah Nakaayi knows how a single race can change a life. In 2019 she crossed the line first in the 800m at the World Championships in Doha and became a world champion. On Monday, the Ugandan middle-distance runner sat in a training room at Umoja House in Kampala, learning to plan for the day the races stop.

"Sometimes with sports people, we tend to get very excited once we receive some income, yet our career is a very short-term career," Nakaayi said. 

"I have learned how to plan for the money, how to invest. I know I have got some knowledge that I am going to pass on, especially to the young athletes, to have financial discipline."

She was one of a group of active and retired athletes at a workshop that starts a new phase of Beyond The Finish, an athlete empowerment programme by Impact Sport. It is run with Stanbic Bank through the Stanbic Business Incubator and the Stanbic Financial Fitness Academy. The sessions covered budgeting, savings, debt management, investment and financial planning, as well as entrepreneurship.

Nelson Mwanga of Safe Places led a session on mental wellness, safeguarding, personal wellbeing, and support services available to athletes.

Nakaayi said that session hit hardest. "It's a very big challenge, especially in our sport, whereby not everyone can come up to speak up. Very many are dying silently," she said. "But when we keep on acquiring knowledge about mental health, the athletes will develop the confidence to trust someone to speak up. Because once a problem is shared, it's solved."

Impact Sport grew out of a sense of duty. Nation Media Group's sports scribe Andrew Mwanguhya, the initiative's team lead, said he started it with friends about three years ago, after years of watching athletes celebrated and then forgotten.

"We have documented our athletes when they are winning medals, winning tournaments, and we are all celebrating them, but when the curtains go down, no one really follows up with them," he said. 

"At a certain point, I got tired of just reporting some of the things that happened to them, like addiction, and maybe the system didn't prepare them for their life after. You report about them, and then what?"

The answer was a programme for what he calls "a dignified post-active sport life". It rests on three pillars. Beyond The Finish gives athletes skills such as financial literacy, coaching and mental health support. The Legends Marathon brings athletes from all disciplines together "to get out of their loneliness" and build networks. The third pillar is storytelling work that records Uganda's sporting heritage, mostly seen through his The Game of Life podcast.

"This training is about turning that commitment into practical support, helping athletes build financial resilience, explore business opportunities and approach their futures with greater confidence."

Sport and the balance sheet

Dennis Musali, honorary secretary of Cricket Uganda, said athletes rarely get time to think beyond the game but is now convinced that the sports federations need to pull their weight in offering solutions.

"As an athlete, you spend 90 per cent of your time training and trying to be the best that you can be at your sport, and then you forget about all the other things you could achieve," he said. "How do you use your image? One of the takeaways for me was how there are things that do not show on your balance sheet, but they are very valuable throughout your career, when you are playing and when you finish playing."

He said the gap was "not of their (athletes) own making", because such training is seldom offered to athletes. "For me as an administrator, it's about making sure that those we have in the system right now can look after themselves when they are done with their career, but also maximise their potential while they are still active.

"We need to be intentional. If we can dedicate ourselves to getting athletes to train on the field, we can get them to learn things that will help them after their sports career," Musali added.

Participants also looked at how to turn their sporting experience, personal brands and transferable skills into businesses and other sources of income.

Maria Kyamulabye, a business management coach and one of the workshop's facilitators, said the athletes did not lack drive. 

"The athletes are motivated, they are passionate, and some of them have even tried to start businesses, but they don't know how to go about it in a way that is sustainable," she said.

She said the problem goes beyond sport. "When it comes to money, and this is not just athletes but Ugandans in general, managing it with the understanding that their careers may not last forever is difficult."

The good news, she said, is that most of the athletes already see the problem. "They understand their careers have a time limit. Right now it's the next step: What do I do with this idea? What do I do with this small business that I started?"

Vanessa Mirembe, a facilitator and programmes manager at the Stanbic Business Incubator, said the bank wanted to "take them to the other side, the business world", which is normally where it works with entrepreneurs.

"What does it mean to start a business? What do you have to put in place? What does it look like to actually run your business?" she said. "We are happy that most of them turned up. The effort they're taking to come and learn is going to be very beneficial. Even after they're retired, they will take that, start a business and build a legacy."

The workshop also introduced a one-month phase of structured business coaching and mentorship, subject to final alignment. It will cover From Idea to Growth, Managing Your Business, and a Progress Showcase.