Good communication skills increasingly becoming necessary for champion athletes

I‘m sure you’ve heard of many champion athletes who upon winning a race, utter statements that make you cringe not only at the content, but at the delivery of it all.  

Like this one.....https://t.co/MGYHbmdY

Being a superstar in sports does not come from winning alone. Being a champion in modern sports is being more than a winner as there are many elements needed to become a star. Top among them is great communication skills. The ability to speak confidently and articulate in public and more is a significant life skill. Effective communication for a sportsperson can mean the difference between a major sponsorship deal and none at all.

This is an area where our own athletes have not been particularly strong in. Despite being among the best in the world, the lack of strong communication skills has hindered many of our champion athletes’ stories from being heard.

Appropriate training (and even an English tutor) could make these high-class athletes more comfortable with dealing with reporters and reduce stress they may have about these kinds of interactions.

Of course there’s a easier way around this…speak in Kiswahili or in a native language and almost always a translator will be found to interpret on a often enhanced and articulate message. The Ethiopians, French, Spanish and other non English speaking athletes do it all the time.

As sports stars have the potential to influence the masses, how effectively they communicate can determine how relevant they become in the society. Kenya has had several Olympic champions in athletics but the ones that are still memorable to date are the ones that possessed strong interpersonal skills.

The media, fans, sponsors, and even other competitors are often curious of the process an athlete or player went through to achieve a win. It therefore becomes important that the story be told in an articulate and coherent manner so that everyone listening or reading can be drawn to it, language notwithstanding!

As a sports marketer, I want to see an athlete’s personality shine through in an interview and the consequential article. I love seeing athletes say something outside of the importance of executing their game plan, references to thanking God or the need to stay focused.

There are many benefits of being an effective communicator as a sportsperson. As they are constantly in the limelight, it enables them to increase their brand appeal to potential sponsors, improve the marketing opportunities, have an enhanced image and public perception, heightened self-confidence and comfort with the media.

However, the demands placed upon the modern sportsperson are numerous. They range from high public expectations, intense media scrutiny, the reality of being extensively quoted, misquoted, and quoted out of context, the dangers inherent in off-the-record comments, handling sensitive situations, performance issues to crisis’s arising from unfortunate comments.

The intensity and media scrutiny that accompany every word a sportsman says and posts online in the 24/7 news cycle, along with the explosion of social networking, has greatly affected the perception of professional athletes.  Reality is that controversial headlines sell papers and social networking posts can go viral -- and both can be devastating to teams, coaches and athletes /players.

These issues influence an athlete’s image with the public, relationship with teammates and coaches, and even family life. As well, handling success is often - though not always - easier than failure, and athletes are among the only professionals expected to undergo failure in public. Even more importantly, an athlete’s private behavior is often put on display for all to see.

As athletes mature and attain success, their visibility may bring promotional or sponsorship opportunities. Corporations look to associate their name, brand, or product with an athlete who projects a positive image. In my opinion, the one sports personality who best embodies this here in Kenya has been Paul Tergat. A true superstar, he is very articulate and brings a lot of credibility to whatever brand he endorses.

For most athletes, strong personal skills will be an absolute necessity in the years to come. In later years, athletes need to begin preparing for life— and a career— after sport. As a skill that can be learnt, I believe that having regular communications seminars for sports people will help them to build a range of vital skills that will take them beyond their life in sports. This might include mentoring, public speaking support, media skills development, job interview training, or interpersonal skills development.