• 23-year-old Lucy Shirima has won several gold and silver medals in international tournaments. However, the journey has been full of ups and downs, especially due to lack of sponsorship

Lucy Shirima’s mother passed away a year after Lucy was born in 1999. She was taken care of by her aunt, Marygoreth Mrosso. Her aunt enrolled her at the Jeshi la Wokovu Primary School when she turned seven. This is a special school for children with disabilities that is located in Temeke, Dar es Salaam. It was at this school that Lucy discovered her passion for tennis.

The school headteacher, Charles Hussein, wanted to create an environment of sports for the pupils at the school. Tennis was one of the sports he promoted, and Lucy hoped to become one of the players.

Her dreams were shattered after the headteacher got promoted to work for the Tanzania Paralympic Committee, and no other teacher continued with what the former headteacher had started working on. Lucy was in fourth grade at the time.

As fate would have it, three years later, two coaches, visited the school looking for wheelchair tennis players.

“They were going from one class to another, and when they got to my class, they said they were looking for boys who would be interested in joining the tennis team. “I raised my hand, but they didn’t pick me.”

After they continued to the next class, Lucy hurried to convince the teacher who was walking the coaches from class to class to talk to them about her interest. The two coaches agreed on the condition that Lucy had to play a tryout session before further arrangements were made. They were impressed by her drive and self-effort.

“Honestly, it was my first time on the court, yet it felt like home to me. This is because I had already developed a passion for the sport before I even started playing,” she details, adding;

“Despite having been used to using a wheelchair, it was hard to make it run faster and at the same time hold onto the tennis racket consistently. The first time I played on the field, I was closely watched by the two coaches and teachers. This subjected me to weeks of pain in my shoulders and rashes on my right hand,” Lucy narrates.

It took Lucy six months to master the rules and the game itself. She has since kept up her pace. Her devotion to tennis has seen her rise through the ranks to second place on the national tennis team.

A year after she joined the Wheelchair National Team, Lucy began competing in and out of Tanzania. She traveled to different parts of the world, like Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya, and Nigeria. This not only encouraged her but also increased her confidence to play with international players.

The recent global competition that Lucy took part in was the ‘BNP Paribas World Team Cup’ which took place in Turkey from March 17 to 22 this year.

“When I began my journey in tennis, I used to watch and look up to a South African player, Mariska Venter, and through her videos, I learnt a number of moves from her. When I met and played against her in 2016, in spite of the fact that Mariska won, it was magical. I felt like a proud student who had followed her teacher’s silent guidance and succeeded in getting where the teacher is,” Lucy explains.

When the two met, they briefly talked about their journeys, and Mariska emphasized that Lucy should be patient on her tennis journey due to the different tennis environments in their countries (South Africa and Tanzania).

Mariska stressed practising patience when she heard about Lucy’s struggles. She told Lucy she had encountered many other wheelchair tennis players who had overcome obstacles.

“This conversation also helped me pull up my socks and understand the South African tennis game.

I also learned later that they were ahead of us in terms of support and infrastructure.”

She mentions that the international competitions that the national team has played in were funded by non-government organisations.

“Sports are among the areas through which people with disabilities employ themselves, which helps in bridging the unemployment gap for people with disabilities,” she says.

Lucy further details; “unlike in our country, wheelchair tennis teams in other countries are supported in terms of the sports environment, in local and global competitions, facilities, and policies. “Tanzania does not even have an official field for players with disabilities. For years, we have depended on the gymkhana field that is also used by other tennis teams.”

Lucy recalls two instances where she had to postpone participating in international competitions due to a lack of funding for the national team.

I played in Johannesburg in the ACSA Bloem Open competitions in December 2015 and won the second position. I was then supposed to travel to France for a world competition, but I did not have the financial support to do so. The same happened in 2016 when I played at the same competition in South Africa; I won the same position and I was supposed to proceed to Japan, but I lacked support,” Lucy shares.

She is currently working as a mobile transaction agent, to make ends meet.

“I was initially certain that being a national team player would expose my ability on the tennis court and enable me to be financially stable, but it was different. I had to find a part-time job to help me earn an income.”

John Bura, Chairman of Wheelchair Tennis in Tanzania, explains that aside from the team thriving for a long time, it is about time government intervenes to offer its support.

“The national wheelchair team is currently struggling to finance tools and attendance at international competitions because we were depending on support from private companies, institutions, NGOs, embassies, and individuals, but with the Corona Pandemic and the Ukraine and Russia war, these organisations cannot offer the same support anymore,” he details.

Mr Bura appeals to the government to set aside funds to develop wheelchair tennis.

“This should not be left on the shoulders of NGOs, yet the team represents the country in international competitions. This hurts the players, for they perceive this as their employment,” he says.

According to Neema Msitha, the Executive Secretary of the National Sports Council, the council is limited to supporting national teams depending on the games they take part in.

“Our fund is small, which forces us to only accommodate well-known games like the Olympics. We are currently focusing on priority games and programmes. We cannot purchase equipment for all teams across the country. We usually extend support depending on the type of programmes those particular teams are taking part in,” she emphasises.