As the world sets eyes on Qatar for this year’s World Cup, Ugandan award-winning sports journalist, Usher Komugisha, will be lending her vast football knowledge and exceptional analysis skills to Al Jazeera.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup opened Sunday with hosts Qatar playing Ecuador. This is the first-ever World Cup to be held in the Middle East.
On Sunday, for six hours, Komugisha was part of Al Jazeera’s panel of analysts that delivered expert analysis into previous games and what is to be expected this year. She shared the set with football commentator, Juan Arango and ESPN correspondent, Gemma Soler.
Komugisha will be conducting exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes coverage on top of punditry throughout the games in Qatar.
A multiple award-winning African multimedia sports journalist, Usher Komugisha has over a decade-long experience covering sports. Her work has been featured on several international media outlets including Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, ESPN, SuperSport and Sky Sports.
Born in Kilembe, a small copper mining town on the foothills of Mount Rwenzori in Kasese district, Komugisha has covered major sporting events including the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.
She has also covered FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019, FISU World University Games 2011, three editions of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the African Nations Championship (CHAN) among others.
You could say Komugisha’s future in sports was groomed at an early stage, having played numerous games including dodgeball, volleyball, netball, lawn tennis, cycling, golf as well as track during school.
While at Makerere University she began co-hosting Touchdown, a sports show on Power FM.
Later, she started to regularly appear on several BBC platforms — radio and television — as an African sports analyst.
With Al Jazeera, Komugisha started as an analyst and later as a freelance correspondent on African sport.
One of the attributes that have made her an exceptional international sports journalist has been her multilingualism. She speaks at least 18 languages.
Not that she hasn’t been a victim of the gender stereotypes that are dominant in the sports world.
“When I was starting out in my career, I encountered men who did not think that a woman had a place in sports journalism. I went back to the basics — work hard, learn new things daily, take constructive criticism and make corrections. And repeat! I have always tried to be ahead of the pack, and like to set myself apart so that no one can ever say that I am unworthy,” she has said previously.
Komugisha moderated the inaugural Moving Sports Forward Forum on the sidelines of the BAL Season Two in Kigali this year.
In 2019, she was named among the Top 100 Most Influential Young Africans by Avance Media in Ghana and was later that year chosen by the US State Department as one of 50 women sports journalists from across the world to be part of the first-ever International Visitor Leadership Program focusing on women sports journalists.
In 2020, she received the inaugural African Woman in Sport Award by the celebrated GSport Awards in South Africa which focus on highlighting women in sports.
A year later, she was named among the 500 Most Influential Africans in the World by Tropics Magazine.
