Kathleen taking preparations for Olympics down to the wire

The more the Olympics draw closer, the more Grace Noble Kathleen tries to disrupt her thoughts from that and instead focus them on training.

Much as Kathleen will be Uganda’s first rower at the Olympics, the 26 year old is determined not to let that piece of history get in the way of the hard work she needs to put in to put up one final show for her country.

“I honestly don’t think very much about the Olympics themselves,” Kathleen told Daily Monitor from her camp in Philadelphia.
This is the second elite camp she has been to in three months. Her first was in Saratoga Springs in New York - a clear indication that she is focused on “training and having fun.”

“The opportunity to train with other elite rowers has been wonderful and I have learned a lot from them. Also the volume and intensity of training is high,” she added after completing a gruelling session that totalled to 38km of work on the water.
That is 17 times more than the 2km race she is preparing for in the women’s single scull at the Olympics.

Her races at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo start on July 23 with the heats before she delves into the classification rounds that climax July 30.
It will be a tough week and Kathleen is under no illusions about what to expect.

“I think racing in Tokyo will be very difficult. The competition obviously will be extremely fast but even more than that the conditions are challenging. It is very hot and humid and the water is often rough,” said
Kathleen, who made the grade to these Games during the Olympic qualifiers in Tunis in October 2019 after winning the single scull B-final ahead of rowers from Togo and Nigeria, in eight minutes and 36 seconds.

Background
Kathleen, by the way, did not have rowing as a first love. She started out as a swimmer with her career culminating into representing Uganda at the 2012 World Short Course Championships in Istanbul, Turkey where she made national records in 50m freestyle and 50m butterfly.

Her freestyle record (29.22) was better than times managed by Olympians Aya Nakitanda (29.71) and Jamila Lunkuse (29.34) when they went to the 2008 and 2010 editions respectively. Her 50m fly time (30.80) is till Uganda’s best at this competition.

She also played volleyball, representing International School of Uganda in the ISSEA (International Schools of South and East Africa) competitions from 2009 to 2012.

Her swimming career ended after secondary school. Kathleen moved to Princeton University in New Jersey - USA, where she discovered rowing through her roommate Katie Mirabella, in 2014.

“There is hardly any outdoor swimming in USA and I also don’t like the chemicals in the pool so it was hard for me to continue.
“I also didn’t see much of my roommate yet she seemed to enjoy rowing a lot. When she invited me, I was open to being outside on the water again.”

Class of elites
Princeton’s competitive program allowed her to grow quickly in their lightweight women’s crew and at the end of that year she rowed in the Varsity Eight, a premiere competition for highly experienced rowers, at the US Collegiate Nationals.

In October 2014, six months into her rowing journey, Ugandan coach Rodrick Muhumuza, learnt about her during a visit to USA’s rowing headquarters in Princeton and asked her to row for Uganda.

Despite feeling that the conversation was premature as she had never rowed in a single boat, Kathleen open mindedly took a semester off the next year to train with the Ugandan team in preparation for the 2016 World Championships.

Rowing in Uganda comes with its own challenges like lack of equipment and dedicated programs among others. Kathleen grew up here and has never been blind to such challenges across all sports but watching the likes of William Mwanga - who would later turn into her coach Douglas Kisarale, Arnold Omony and Raymond Adiga among others work through the challenges spurred her on.

She went on to row four times at the 2016 U-23 World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands – bettering her times in all events. Her final race was 17 seconds faster than her first.

After her university, she nearly quit competitive sport again as she moved to Utah, a mountainous desert state famous for skiing and mountain biking, for work.
She did not row, for a year, until Muhumuza came calling again in early 2019 ahead of Africa’s Olympic qualifiers.

A search about rowing in the area led her to a secondary school team – Utah Crew trained by coach Linda Iqbal, who welcomed Kathleen to “the family I would never have had here.”
She trained with them for three months leading up to Tunis. And the rest as they say is history.

AT A GLANCE

Name: Kathleen Grace
Noble
Parents: Gerry and
Moira Noble
Date of Birth: Dec 20,
1994
Age: 26
Place of Birth: Luwero
Education
Primary: Kabira
International (1999
2004)
Secondary:
International
School of Uganda
(2004-2013)
University: Joined
Princeton in 2014
Rowing Events
2020: Qualified for
Olympics
2019: Africa Olympics
Qualifiers
2016: U-23 World
Championships
Swimming Events
2012: Short Course
World Championships

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