Ugandan rower Kathleen Noble has confirmed that she will retire from the sport after her final race at this year’s Olympics, which is scheduled for Friday, August 2.
Noble confirmed her decision in an interview with sports journalist Clive Kyazze on Monday, July 29, following her semifinal repechage.
“This is it, I am retiring. Friday is my last race folks, then I’m out, so stay tuned,” Noble declared.
Her decision to retire stems from a desire to start a family, focus on her career, and pave the way for future generations of Ugandan rowers.
“I want to move on, I want to start a family, I want to focus on my career, I want to hand it on to somebody else, so I’m very happy to wrap up this season and move to something else,” she explained.
Noble’s journey at the Paris Olympics has been eventful. She secured a place in the Final E after finishing second in the E/F 2 semifinal with a time of 8:38.78.
Her performance in the heats included a fifth-place finish in Heat 1 on Saturday and a third-place finish in Repechage 3 with a time of 8:15.10 on Sunday, July 28.
Her final race on Friday offers her a chance to surpass her previous best performance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and conclude her career on a high.
Reflecting on the future of rowing in Uganda, Noble emphasised the need for a shift in focus from merely qualifying for the Olympics to developing a robust local and regional rowing community.
“I honestly think that we need to take the focus off trying to qualify for Los Angeles (where the 2028 Olympics will be held) and put it on creating national and regional championships to create a community that is more vibrant within the country,” she stated.
Noble highlighted the importance of providing athletes with opportunities to compete and succeed locally before taking on international stages.
“Athletes need to have the opportunity to compete locally and be successful locally, regionally, and on the continental level. Otherwise, they’ll just end up at the world championships or the Olympics and come last, and that’s not a very good experience,” she added.
She called for the establishment of active rowing clubs that hold regular competitions to foster a strong and competitive rowing community within Uganda.
“I think what we need is to build the sport by having different clubs that have activity every week at home, and from there, we’ll be able to compete,” she concluded.
