A lack of equipment and coaching hasn’t stopped software engineer Kathleen Noble from making history with landlocked Uganda

From learning how to row in boats patched together with duct tape to competing at the world championships in a different sport entirely, Kathleen Noble’s rise to the apex of rowing has certainly been unconventional.

From learning how to row in boats patched together with duct tape to competing at the world championships in a different sport entirely, Kathleen Noble’s rise to the apex of rowing has certainly been unconventional. Her journey now sees the 29-year-old set to become a two-time Olympian – Noble represented Uganda at the Tokyo Games – when she competes at Paris 2024. She is Uganda’s first Olympic rowing participant, as well as the African nation’s first and only White Olympian across any sporting discipline. A prodigious swimmer in her youth, Noble represented Uganda at the 2012 World Swimming Championships at just 17 years of age. Then, on a whim during her time as a student at Princeton University, Noble was convinced to try her hand at rowing. “When I took my first steps into the sport, I had no thoughts or intentions of competing at a high level and certainly couldn’t have imagined that this would be the direction that things would go,” Noble tells CNN Sport. “To be honest, it is still a bit surreal to be competing on a stage like this. I don’t think it was until they actually told me that Uganda wanted to send me to the Olympic qualifiers that I really thought, ‘Oh, okay, maybe there’s something here.’” The sport of rowing is still very much in its nascent stages across many parts of Africa, including Uganda.