Usher Komugisha is one of the most successful and inspiring sports journalists our generation has been blessed with.
One of a few women shattering the glass ceiling in the male dominated industry and paving way for other female sports journalists, her career has seen her write for international media houses like BBC, NBA Africa, The Guardian Daily, among others.
She has interviewed some of the most world’s most celebrated sports personalities like FIFA president Joseph Sepp Blatter, FIVB president Dr. Ary Graca Filho, NBA stars like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Kevin Durant, tennis legends Serena Williams, Andy Murray and Roger Federer among others, swimmers including Michael Phelps as well as Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the Local Organizing Committee of the London Olympic Games (LOCOG) among others. Usher currently works with SuperSport.com and the Federtion of International Basketball Association (FIBA).
We read through her past interviews with Kigalian and Leo Africa Review to get these success tidbits. Be inspired!
SELF DISCOVERY
“Growing up I loved sports. I was molded to be a writer and didn’t even realise it. My parents always brought home newspapers and I would read the pages. At secondary school (Kibuli S.S, Uganda), I always wanted to have the latest info on current issues among my peers and also participated in sports activities”
PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
In 2011, a training opportunity from the International Sports Press Association (ISPA) presented itself. The Association was looking for young reports across the world, two per continent—for the World University Games in Shenzhen (WUGS), China. The WUGS is the third biggest sporting event in the world, after the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games.
Usher was one of the two representatives from Africa alongside a Senegalese counterpart. They were mentored by leading sports journalists from across the world. She is thus a graduate of the AIPS-FISU Young Reporters program, a platform manned by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) that grooms and mentors, young sports journalists.
PASSION
“You must do what you love and enjoy. People sometimes ask me if I ever get leave, but I tell them, my work is also my leisure. Like when I’m in a stadium, I’m enjoying the game as much as I’m working.”
URGENCY
“I met journalists who had covered over 20 Olympics. They would file their stories instantly at a conference, breaking the stories even when you were at the press conference together. I learnt that urgency in the news industry is critical, and that if I was to survive as long as those guys had, I had to make it part of my professional ethics.”
LET YOUR WORK SPEAK FOR YOU
“It did not matter that I had played most of these games. At the end of the day, I was a female, reporting on a male-dominated industry, and it would take time for people to respect my opinions I had to be on top of my game, research, and work doubly hard.”
PURPOSE
“I wanted to find a niche as a reporter, but I was also for a long time convinced that African football was underreported, and that’s why it remained less popular compared to European leagues, even in its own backyard. I, therefore, wanted to give it a voice.”
SACRIFICE
“I am lucky that I work for companies that appreciate the overlapping nature of sports. For example, when I go to cover say afro-basketball qualifiers in Egypt for FIBA, I stay for a while longer after the tournament doing personal research on African football. So, it requires personal sacrifices as well as building trust with your employers.”
PROFESSIONALISM
“Sometimes you meet people who are very conservative and they will think you are dumb before you even say anything. They give you that look, that says ‘what could you possibly say,’ it’s like they just expect the worst thing ever, but once I start to talk and ask good questions, they are challenged and surprised and, I don’t know… it’s just weird.”
HARDWORK
“It is not what I expected but it has taken hard work to get here.”
SERVICE
“I really want to tell people’s stories. There are many people who struggle, put in their all to succeed in sports against extraordinary odds, especially here in Africa where Sports is still underdeveloped. Their stories inspire me to keep telling that story.”
LEGACY
For the next five years, she’s set herself a target to tell stories and also mentor and inspire more female story tellers like herself. “Some are already in the field working and I occasionally meet them to share experiences. Hopefully, I can inspire one or two of them to live their passion, just like I’ve tried to live mine.”
