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KAMPALA - Uganda Olympics Committee (UOC) president Donald Rukare has urged all affiliate members of the Olympics movement to work towards the common Olympics goals.

The Olympics’ goals are striving for excellence and encouraging people to be the best they can be, Demonstrating respect in many different manners: respect towards yourself, the rules, your opponents, the environment, and the public, and celebrating friendship, which is unique to the Olympic Games.

“We ought to live by the values of respect, friendship, and excellence as we all look forward to holding the Uganda flag high in the skies using sport as our tool,” he said.

Rukare noted this on March 30, 2024, at the UOC offices in Lugogo, Kampala, where the 33 affiliated member associations were represented by the presidents and general secretaries at the annual general assembly (AGM).

He advised all federations with athletes in line for qualification for the Paris Olympics to work closely with UOC and the National Council of Sports (NCS) to enable them to achieve their goals.

UOC affiliate Members.

“We have athletes from boxing, dancesport, judo, weightlifting, badminton, and rugby and will surely give the necessary support to have the athletes qualify.”

Uganda has 20 athletes who have already qualified for the Olympics including 16 from athletics, Charles Kagimu from cycling, Kathleen Grace Noble from rowing, and 2 athletes from swimming.

It was in the same meeting that a budget of sh4.5b was passed for the financial year 2024/25 with priority on the Paris Olympics.

However, federations were advised to desist from doing the same accountability for money from the government, UOC, and the international bodies.

“A tendency of federations making the same accountability for monies received from various sources has cropped up and is plunging many of you into audit queries which we do not want to escalate and leads to legal action towards the victims.," Rukare said.

UOC treasurer and Uganda Volleyball Federation president, Sadik Nasiwu, asked the federations to pay up their annual subscription to UOC for the smooth running of its work.