Kukundakwe ready to make ‘big splash’

Husnah Kukundakwe’s life story will easily transcend her sport. But she must first get the laps in. 
The 14-year old Ugandan para-swimmer makes her Paralympics bow tomorrow morning in the 100m breaststroke SB8 heats. 

This breaststroke event will be held dear to Kukundakwe’s heart as it earned her a place at these Games on merit and not through a wildcard as all other swimmers – adaptive or not – have managed over the years.  However, there was a point when you felt she would opt for freestyle. 

Kukundakwe’s international journey actually started next door in Nairobi, where she first went for classification at the Kenya nationals.  

Little is written of her performance there but the world took note during her second classification event the World Para-swimming Series in Singapore in April 2019.

At the time, Kukundakwe’s reasons for swimming had gone beyond just personal glory to “impacting lives and motivating other disabled children to join sports.” Kukundakwe took part in the 100m breast (1:57.44), 100m freestyle (1:30.43) and 50m free (40.24) then qualifying for the London 2019 World Para Swimming Allianz Championships.

She did not do the breaststroke in London but managed to better her times to 1:24.85 and 38.14 respectively in the freestyles.

After that Covid-19 hit ruling her out of competition and training for over a year. She kept to her dry-land workouts and when the chance to qualify came around at the World Series in Sheffield, Kukundakwe had re-embraced the breaststroke.

She surprised everyone by shedding more than 20 seconds to post 1:36.31 thereby lowering the Singapore 1:57.44 and beating the 1:37.44 qualification mark to make it to Tokyo. She also had personal bests in the 100m free (1:24.24) and the 200IM (3:24.34) which she had last done in Nairobi.

Living the moment
That alone is an achievement as it widens Uganda’s scope at the Games. Uganda, which is now making its 9th appearance at the Games, last sent a swimmer to the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.  Prossy Tusabe participated in the 100m freestyle then posting 2:12.45 minutes – way before Kukundakwe was even born.

“I feel really proud and honoured but also with pressure because Uganda has not been represented in para-swimming in over 21 years. I cannot wait to make them proud. I hope to do my best and maybe qualify for the finals but I am still really young and there is a mountain to climb. I just want to see where this journey takes me,” Kukundakwe said.

At a glance 

Name: Husnah Kukundakwe
Club: Dolphins
Paralympics: Tokyo 2020

Major swimming events: 

Singapore 2019 World Series, 
2019 World Allianz Championships, 
2021 Sheffield World Series

Best times
100m breaststroke: 1:36.31
100m freestyle: 1:24.24

Tomorrow in Tokyo- Ugandan in action 
Name: Husnah Kukundakwe
Event: 100m breast: 
When: Tomorrow (5:01am)