Ruth Mwandumba is all too aware of the conflicting connotations that surround the word ‘shooting’.
Is it the elitist game for those who wear tweed or does it have a more deadly significance
When the 27-year-old took up the sport in 2018, she was one of just 0.5 percent of black British competitive shooters. Four years on, that is still the case.
It is no coincidence that she lists Lewis Hamilton and the Williams sisters among her sporting idols. Mwandumba does not have any black shooters to look up to, but instead a trio of all-time greats who paved the way for other black athletes to excel in previously white-dominated sports.
Mwandumba is a trailblazer in her own right, England’s first-ever black rifle shooting champion, achieving that unprecedented feat in 2018 and repeating the trick in 2022.
But it is not just on the range that she is making waves, Mwandumba feels a responsibility to inspire others to follow in her footsteps.
Earlier this year, she spearheaded a campaign from British Shooting called Target Change, aimed at bringing more people into the sport. It was a powerful message.
She explained the reasoning behind the project: “One of the things I noticed was that within the British shooting community, there are hardly any black shooters. For someone shooting at an elite level, it’s very strange to go to a competition, internationally or domestically and see that you’re the only one like you.
“I’d never seen it as trying to tie it to any negativity, but more a case of thinking ‘What can I do to try to change this?’. I came up with the idea of maybe creating some sort of campaign and making a powerful poem that would draw audiences in.”
The words certainly resonate, Mwandumba’s penchant for poetry shining through.
“Amateur is definitely the word, but it’s something that I like to do every now and then, write a poem. Especially if I’m going through something, I like to write it down. I thought ‘why not just put one out there and make it powerful?’ so that is what I did,” she said.
The response went over and above what she could have imagined, stretching beyond these shores and her sport.
She added: “I’ve had a lot of people either from the black community or other ethnic minorities sending me messages. They are mainly asking for advice on how I got to where I am now, what can I do to get there too?
“I get a few messages like that and sometimes I’ll get messages from people from those communities saying, ‘you don’t realise how much you’ve inspired me to do this or that’.
“A lot of the time it’s not just shooting, and I set out with the task of just focusing on shooting but then when I started getting messages from people that had been inspired as a black person to try another sport where they might be a minority, that is when I started to realise that it’s not just shooting where I’m having an impact but sport in general.”
Mwandumba’s desire to bring about change is impressive in itself but she is also a determined shooter with ambitions to reach the very pinnacle of the sport.
Previously, that involved juggling night shifts, studying for a PhD in infectious diseases and training and competing at the elite level.
It was not sustainable and earlier this year, Mwandumba made the decision to put her studies on pause to give herself the best possible chance to excel on the range.
She said: “I was just completely wiped out and knackered. I had to make a choice because I knew that something had to go but at the time, I didn’t know what. When I juggled everything, it made sense that I’m at the point in my shooting that I’m doing really well and getting a lot better.
“I didn’t want that to suffer because I felt that university will always be there but at some point, I’m not going to be an elite shooter anymore so it made sense for me to prioritise that. But the university were really supportive of it so I’m still going to graduate, we just changed my degree. I’ve changed to a post-graduate certificate instead which I’ve now recently completed. So I’m now focused on shooting and working, so a dual career.”
As a result, the night shifts are now a thing of the past, although Mwandumba did make an exception to watch the final few matches of Serena’s career at the US Open last month.
The focus instead, is on her shooting, with Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 the major targets.
With Lucy Hall and Amber Hill having already secured quota places for the British Shooting team in shotgun events in two years’ time, the hope is that the pistol and rifle shooters can follow suit next year.
For Mwandumba, the fact that she is not having to spin quite as many plates, means that those Olympic ambitions are becoming more realistic.
She added: “I think it will definitely help. If I were still doing the three things, it would be a lot harder and take me a lot longer to achieve the goals I’m trying to. It will help my progression.
“Last year I was doing the three things and it was my best season to date so I’d like to think that now I’ve dropped one, it can be even better. Paris seems around the corner, I can’t believe we’re already talking about prep for 2024. I’m still unsure as to whether that might be too close or not. I like to think that certainly by LA, I will be of a standard that I should be going there if things continue the way they are.”
If she makes it, Mwandumba will be representing Team GB, but she also has a strong connection to Malawi, the home of her parents and where much of her family still resides.
Her father, Henry, is still based in the country in southern Africa, splitting his time between there and Liverpool for his work on tropical disease, and whenever she can, Ruth flies out too.
She added: “I always try to make a point of not forgetting where my family have come from and where essentially I am from.
“Obviously I was born and raised here but I still am very strongly connected to Malawi, a lot of my family are over there and I go over there annually. It’s super important to me that I recognise that.
“I’ve done a bit of work with schools out in Malawi, speaking to teenagers about sports programmes that they are on and trying to be an inspiration to them as well as being an inspiration to the kids here. During Covid I spoke to a couple of schools and said that when everything calmed down, I’d go over there and help out in person. It gives me great satisfaction to work with both worlds.”
Whether it is in shooting or the land of her parents, Mwandumba is changing the game, and she is only just getting started.
Paul Eddison, Sportsbeat 2022