Why athletes should harness soft skills for media to grow their fan base

I recently received a video clip that did rounds many years back of the Charles Lokong, the “Chebarbar athlete” being interviewed after running the Kass Marathon.

The comical animation done by Fatboy animations and featuring Lokong’s voice rose to fame and eventually became the poster boy of athletes media interviews. 

Over the years, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) has had several media training sessions aimed at preparing our athletes for media interviews at international events.

One of the schools of thought has been to let them conduct the interviews in Swahili or even in theire local dialects. 

If the guy wants to do the interview in Luhya or Kalenjin, whichever they are comfortable with, then get somebody to translate. 

Our NOC-K Media Commission, who would normally have representation at global events, even offered to assist with the translations. 

However, I am of a different opinion.

Today, sports is business, providing an avenue of creating a good livelihood for athletes. 

Sports is no longer an amateur or recreational activity as it was in the 70s. Many might not know that it wasn’t until 1986 that professionals were allowed to participate at the Olympics.  

Since then sports has grown to become a major industry with millions for grabs for event organisers, broadcasters, coaches, managers and athletes.

Like all other business, sports business is competitive, and players must keep adapting and acquiring skills to put themselves ahead of the pack.

Needless to say, these skills go beyond the field of play. Making money as an athlete takes more than just winning a race or competition.

Prize money is great. However, commercial endorsements have been known to surpass the former, as was the case at yesterday’s 126th running of the Boston Marathon.

In 2021, Federer by Forbes count was reported to have earnings of $90.6 million (about Sh10 billion) with less $1 million (Sh100 million) from actual tennis. 

Some years back, I served on the Badminton World Federation as an executive board member.  

One of our tasks was to ensure that the sport grew and, most importantly, continued to generate money for those in the ecosystem. 

To compete for the sports dollars, we needed badminton to be more popular on the globally stage. 

Research indicated that badminton badly needed a star who could resonate with fans globally. 

Global stars such Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton and Serena Williams have been known to propel their sports to such great popularity increasing both participation and  TV viewership. 

Formula One is of the most viewed sporting events in Africa ahead of volleyball, swimming among others yet we don’t even have one race track. 

Ok, fine, there is one in South Africa if you insist. Stars are what we needed, not just champions. 

Badminton needed a Tiger Woods. One of the barriers to this was that at the time, our most consistent top badminton players came from Asia, particularly China, and they did not conduct any interviews in English nor any other language, irrespective of which countries the championships were held. 

Meaning that most interviews were conducted with the help of a translator, and this has never been endearing to the fans. 

The connection gets lost in the translation (Pun intended).

Fans want to engage with their heroes off and on pitch. They want to engage directly via social media.

They want to know what they ate and when they train, who they date and which car they drive. 

Its not enough that you scored a goal or won a marathon.

A fact known to a few, Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, for example can speak at least 10 different languages, which allows him to take media interviews in the local (championship) languages. 

During French Open, he'd be talking to the media in French. When he goes to Spain, he'd speak in Spanish, and when going to Germany he spoke in German and so on.

Djokovic is loved by media for his eloquence and humor.  It’s no wonder he is a must interview for every journalist. 

Not sure whether his recent Covid-19 vaccine issues will change this.

Serena Williams has also been known to take on media interviews in French and Spanish, while the late Kobe Bryan could take interviews in five languages fluently. 

These language skills helped propel them to global icons.

And hence the reason we must encourage our athletes to invest in the necessary soft skills necessary to supplement their great performances on the tracks.

Our world-renowned marathoners, for example, put in four to five hours of training every day to emerge as world beaters.

However, few can be remembered a day after stepping off the podium. 

Just in the last two weeks, a Kenyan won the Paris marathon, another set won the Istanbul Half Marathon not to mention medals at the Indoor World Championships. 

Can you remember their names?

An extra hour or so for language, media, digital and other soft skills training wouldn’t be too much to ask for better name recognition. 

Our federations and clubs need to change their mindsets and include these soft skills as part of regular training. 

Not just ad hoc workshops, but serious training with tangible results. 

Today, we can see Ferdinand Omanyala slowly but surely becoming a household name, yet he hasn’t won a major race to date. 

Since the Olympics, Omanyala has risen to become one of the most recognizable athletes in the country. 

Kenyans might not remember who won the 800m gold medal in Tokyo or the silver for that matter, but they remember Omanyala. 

He interviews well and has a vibrant social media presence. It’s no wonder he has landed himself some commercial endorsements.

Our athletes need to learn from Eliud Kipchoge, who has earned the title of being the greatest marathoner of all time.

But over and above his success on the road, Eliud has acquired skills that have accorded him paid speaking opportunities at embassies, universities corporate events and other high places that no other athlete in this country has had an opportunity to speak at. 

Eliud has taken media interviews outside the usual sports shows.  Recently he was a guest on the popular JKL Show by Jeff Koinange. 

His social media platforms are quite vibrant, engaging, relevant, and very consistent. 

A lot of our athletes have shied away from social media altogether.

Just like every professional rugby player requires a strength coach and a sprint coach over and above the regular coach, I encourage clubs and federations to hire language, and media coaches.

Gacheru is a Director at IMG Kenya