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Rukare's rise to the top of global sports administration

Rukare wants sports federations to be run more professionally to be self sustaining. PHOTO/COURTESY 

What you need to know:

In 2009, Rukare joined the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) and has not looked back since. Most of the positions he occupies are inter-linked or require you to be backed as a leader of a certain group.

Four endorsements this year and probably still counting! That is what we have grown to expect of the man now in charge of the Commonwealth Games Donald Rukare.

It is telling of inroads made that probably the two biggest multi-discipline Games in the world are now headed by Africans.

“Now you are talking but the appointment is by the grace of God and we look forward to what it brings,” Rukare said on a phone call when asked if his appointment as interim president of Commonwealth Sport (Commonwealth Games Federation) following the resignation of President Chris Jenkins could come with a push for Africa to host the CWG in future.

This appointment comes after another ex-competitive swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe was elected as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last month.

Rukare had only been voted as vice president of the CWGF in November 2023 and is now set to lead the body at least until their assembly in November.

“I am ready to step into this role and thank the Board for their confidence in me. We have come through a particularly challenging period in our Games history, and we are now building momentum towards an outstanding Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2026,” Rukare said in a press statement released by the federation after the appointment.

Starting small

Given his well-mapped and sometimes unintended rise to the top of various sports bodies over the years, do not put it past Rukare, a seasoned lawyer and lecturer, getting elected as substantive president in November. He might in the future fry bigger fish like becoming an IOC member or president.

Having missed out on opportunities to compete at the highest level in swimming due to scrupulous leadership in the 80s and 90s, Rukare, who also played squash at Makerere University, entered sports administration to make it easy for the next generations.

He dived in when he embraced a call in 2003 to replace Maggie Kigozi as head of Uganda Swimming Association (later federation) – a position he held until he was appointed chairman National Council of Sports in 2020. He served NCS during the Covid-19 period and was replaced by Ambrose Tashobya in 2022.

In 2009, Rukare joined the Uganda Olympic Committee (UOC) and has not looked back since. Most of the positions he occupies are inter-linked or require you to be backed as a leader of a certain group.

Usually, the leaders of the federations make up the leadership of the UOC so as president of swimming, Don, as he is popularly known, became general secretary under president William Blick in 2013.

While he served there, his USF position propelled him to the top of Cana (Africa Swimming Federation) Zone III (East Africa). This position led him to serving as vice president of Cana (now Africa Aquatics).

As a leader in African swimming, Don also got various appointments as member of Fina (World Swimming Federation later named World Aquatics) committees like; the marketing commission, high diving technical committee, and masters committee. He was appointed to the Bureau, the body’s most senior and decision making committee, in 2014, as one of the African representatives.

Quiet plan

Rukare enhanced his portfolio by attaining with distinction an Executive Masters in Sports Management and Organisation (Memos) from the University of Louvain, Belgium in 2015. In the same year, he earned a Certificate in International Sports Law from the University of Cambridge – which he would later beef up with an Executive Masters from ISDE Law and Business School in Spain.

This made him a panel member, hearing disputes, in the Regional Anti-Doping Agency (Rado) and later got him appointed as an arbitrator at the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in December 2015.

He has since served as a Memos Lecturer and has taken assignments for the IOC in various countries across the globe. In 2021, he was elected unopposed as president of the UOC.

Huge 2025

This year alone, Rukare was appointed to the IOC’s safe sports steering committee headed by Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan in February and was elected to head the Zone V members of the Africa National Olympic Committees of Africa (Anoca) in Ethiopia last month. That was before he was re-elected unopposed as UOC president.

“What we will mainly do is provide safe sports guidelines to the Olympic family, maybe through initiatives like regional hubs, ensuring countries have policies on these issues.

“It is not a full time job, we will have three or four meetings a year. But most importantly, by sitting there, you can organize through Anoca what Africa's priorities are and make a case for some of our norms (at global sports events),” Rukare shared.