Hasna Kokundakwi is not your ordinary teenage girl. While many recount her journey with sympathy, she takes pride in her identity as a passionate swimmer, a determined athlete with a melodic baritone voice, and a fourth-year student at the Aga Khan University preparing for her Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) final papers next. year.
However, when she was a little girl, she was shy and tried to hide her hand in the sleeve of her school jacket.
Kokundakwi, 16, suffers from a congenital limb defect that leaves her without her right arm, but all that doesn’t matter because she always wears a permanent smile.
Pioneering Kokundakwi, who proudly walks with her mother Hashima Patamuriza, competed at the World Championships in Singapore in 2019 and the World Para Swimming Championships in London 2019.
Few before her have been able to achieve this feat because paralytic swimmers from Africa are rare to begin with. There were only four female swimmers at the Rio 2016 Paralympics; Of the 593 swimmers competing at the time, only 10 were from Africa. Only one other swimmer from Uganda has competed in the quadrennial Olympic Games in the country’s history so far: Brucey Tosabi at the 2000 Sydney Games.
This means expending more energy as she has had to compete against healthy athletes all her life.
Kokundakwe naively began her quest for glory at the age of five when she enrolled at Sir Apollo Kagwa Primary School. She had doubts about her abilities but became excited when she realized that swimming was all she could do.
“I was childish and didn’t take swimming seriously,” she recalls.
She first tested the waters in 2017 when she took part in the DSTV Swimming Party Challenge at Greenhill Academy. She would later participate in the 2018 Korean Paralympic Youth Camp where she won the gold medal in the 100 meter breaststroke.
“This was my first world series. That championship helped me realize that swimming could be a career for me. I realized I had to take it a step further and be more serious as well,” she said.
Kukundakwe, Uganda’s only ranked swimmer, competes in the S8 (freestyle, butterfly and backstroke), SB8 (breaststroke) and SM9 (individual medley) categories which were reviewed at the 2019 World Paralympic Swimming Championships in Singapore. She recorded three personal best times in the 100 breaststroke (1:57.8), 100 freestyle (1:30.43), and 50 freestyle (40.24).
“It was very exciting and nerve-wracking. I went there on a wetsuit. I met a lot of world-class swimmers and achieved personal bests. It was a great experience for me. That was also the first huge experience I had ever had,” said Kokundakwi.
From Singapore, she emerged as Uganda’s sole representative at the Allianz World Para Swimming Championships London 2019. At the event, she improved her times in the 50m (38.14) and 100m (1:24.85) freestyle.
“During this time I didn’t think I was good enough to qualify and I was hoping to get a wildcard. When Covid came I was sad but at the same time I saw it as an opportunity to actually qualify. I continued to work out at home and keep fit. When I opened some gyms Swimming [during the nationwide lockdown]“I started training more seriously because I saw myself being very close to the qualifying time for the 100m breaststroke,” she said.
I went to the qualifying event in Sheffield, UK in 2021 and qualified with a personal best and also had the minimum entry time. This made her the first Ugandan swimmer ever to qualify for the Paralympics. She will be the youngest athlete at the Games.
“There were high risks and high pressure. A lot of people were expecting me to do well because I was the only one representing Uganda in para-swimming and Uganda had not been represented for almost 20 years at the Paralympics. At the Games, I didn’t know what I’m expecting it because it was my first time. I was more than excited to be at the Games. I was kind of stalking the Games Village. I knew what was there. “I was ready to tour around the whole Paralympic Village and make new friends as well,” she recalls.
At the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan recorded a personal best (PB) in its favored 100m breaststroke.
“I enjoyed the feeling of participating in the Paralympics,” she said.
When the Tokyo Games ended, her focus turned to the 2024 Paris Games.
In 2022, she represented Uganda at the Lignano Sabbiadoro World Championships and Uganda won her first international medal in Paralympic swimming in the 100m butterfly and 100m breaststroke.
Her star was on the rise which earned her a place at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in August 2022 as the only female Paralympic swimmer. Her S9 class was still new to the Commonwealth Games, so she was invited to the event.
However, in 2022, she participated in the 2021 Konya Islamic Solidarity Games in Turkey and raised the Ugandan flag high by winning six medals. Two gold, three silver and two bronze in Paralympic swimming competitions.
“I was very excited to hear the national anthem played for the first time internationally, not once but twice, for these two gold medals,” Kokundakwe said.
In 2023, she went to participate in the World Championships in Sheffield where she was able to qualify for the World Championships in Manchester which would have been the qualifiers for Paris 2024. She participated in three events; 100 meter butterfly, 100 meter breaststroke, 200 meter individual medley, and qualified for the Olympics in all three events with minimum entry times.
“I am very happy to represent Uganda at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games next year,” she said.
However, her team still ensured a smooth qualification by considering events that could enable her to achieve the minimum standard qualifying time.
Despite her achievements, financial challenges remain, and her family is still struggling to secure the necessary support. However, a breakthrough came when Citibank extended a landmark sponsorship worth Sh45 million, making Kukundakwe part of Team Citi – an exclusive category of special needs athletes supported by the bank.
In 2019, her mother wrote a pitch to banking firm Citi for sponsorship.
“The team told me that City does not sponsor the sport and I left it at that,” she said.
But this year, things got better when the bank called her to follow up on sponsoring her daughter.
First Kukundakwe performed exceptionally well while the bank became the founding partner of the PARA SPORT program which was launched in 2022 with the aim of driving societal change through diversity, equality and inclusion.
Akin Dawodu, Citibank Group President for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), expressed his great admiration for Kokundakwe’s inspiring journey.
“Her story is so inspiring and I think that’s the most amazing thing about Hasna. Just to walk down a path that hasn’t been taken is amazing. This is a place where City likes to think about the people we work with and the things we do. We try to support People who have that spirit, that courage and that ambition.”
As partners of PARA SPORT, the popular high-performance program of the International Paralympic Committee. Through the partnership, Citi supports 23 National Paralympic Committees and a group of more than 30 individual athletes around the world known as Team Citi. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the Bank supports two national teams; Nigeria and South Africa as well as City Team athletes in those countries as well as Cameroon and now Uganda.
Sarah Arabta, Managing Director of Citibank Uganda, was excited that the partnership ticks the diversity, equity and inclusion box.
“It is our first sponsorship of the sports fraternity in Uganda and I must say we are honored and very proud of Hasna,” Arabta said.
For Kokundakwe, this care will be a game-changer, breaking down barriers and changing perceptions about people with disabilities. With her focus on the Paris Games, she remains determined to push boundaries and be the best version of herself.
“I am quite sure that I have now changed the perceptions of people with disabilities. Now that I understand what I am doing, I will push myself. People who are counting on me to be the best version of myself give me the courage to move forward,” said Kokundakwe, who hopes to reach the finals of the Paris Olympics.
Date of birth: March 25, 2007
Coach: Muzafaru Mwanguzi