Rachel Ankomah: From a Shy Girl to a force in African Sports

From playing sports with boys as a young girl to founding Accra Majestics and creating platforms for athletes whose stories often go untold, Rachel Ankomah’s journey is one of resilience, purpose and a determination to create opportunities for others.

The beginning of a sporting journey

Before Rachel Ankomah became a founder, coach, digital creator and sports communications executive, she was simply a shy young girl who loved sport. Growing up, Rachel was naturally drawn to competition. Because few girls around her shared the same interest, she often found herself playing with boys. What started as a simple way to find people to play with eventually exposed her to different sports and helped develop the competitive spirit that would shape much of her life.

At secondary school, she represented her house in athletics, basketball, hockey and football before going on to compete in cricket and handball as well. She also had opportunities to represent her school locally and internationally. At university, sport remained a major part of her life, as she played hockey and represented her hall in cricket.

Looking back, Rachel believes her parents played an important role in giving her the confidence to explore those opportunities. Their encouragement allowed a shy girl to keep testing her abilities, while sport gradually gave her something she struggled to find elsewhere: a voice.“Sport gave me confidence,” Rachel recalls. “I was a very shy child, so being on the field gave me a different kind of voice.”

From athlete to leader

Rachel’s transition from athlete to sports leadership was not the result of one carefully planned decision. It happened naturally, one opportunity at a time. Her first real taste of leadership came in secondary school, where she captained her hockey team and served as Sports Prefect of her house. Those experiences taught her that leadership was about more than giving instructions; it was about responsibility and supporting the people around you.

In 2016, she was offered the opportunity to become Team Manager of a men’s volleyball team. She knew little about the role, but she accepted the challenge and learned along the way. Before long, she was doing everything from team management and media duties to assisting with coaching.That experience opened another door, this time into rugby.

A friend who had seen her work with the volleyball team offered her a team management role with his rugby team. Rachel knew almost nothing about the sport when she started, but the players welcomed her and she quickly became fascinated by the game. When that team eventually folded, she thought her rugby journey was over. A year later, however, another opportunity came through rugby league. She accepted it, and what began as an unexpected opportunity eventually became a passion.“I didn’t just want to be involved in it,” she says. “I wanted to help build it.”

Why Accra Majestics was born

By 2021, Rachel had spent enough time around sport to understand some of the challenges young athletes faced. She had seen talented people with passion and ability struggle because they lacked structure, mentorship, opportunities and the support systems needed to develop. That experience, combined with her own memories of being a young girl searching for space in sport, led to the creation of Accra Majestics.

It began as a rugby league club, but Rachel’s ambitions were always bigger than simply putting a team on the field. She wanted to create a place where young athletes could develop their sporting abilities while also learning discipline, teamwork, leadership, confidence and responsibility. The early days were difficult. There was no large budget, permanent facility or sizeable team working behind the scenes. Volunteers, community support and people who believed in the vision helped keep the project moving.

There were moments when Rachel questioned whether she was being too ambitious. But she continued because Majestics represented something bigger than a sports team.“I wanted to create a place where a young athlete could come and say, ‘I belong here,’” she explains. That vision eventually saw Majestics grow beyond rugby league into a multi-sport academy, with ambitions around sports development, mentorship, school programmes and community initiatives. For Rachel, the philosophy remains simple: build athletes, but also build people and future leaders.

Finding her place in a man’s world

Rachel’s journey through African sport has not been without resistance. As a woman occupying leadership and coaching positions, she has experienced being underestimated, labelled difficult for standing her ground and, at times, having her work deliberately undermined.

Some of the pressure has even come from other women, including those who suggested she should step away from leadership or coaching and allow a man to take over. The experience has sometimes made her feel as though she has had to work three times as hard to prove her competence. Yet Rachel is also quick to acknowledge the men who have supported her, opened doors and encouraged her ambition without seeing it as a threat.

Those experiences have strengthened her rather than diminished her. She has learned that she does not need to make herself smaller simply to make other people comfortable. She can be ambitious, assertive and confident in what she brings to sport while still creating room for others to succeed.

When recognition becomes responsibility

Her work was recognised when she was named among the 50 Most Influential African Women in Sports. For Rachel, the recognition was more than an achievement to celebrate. It forced her to pause and reflect on how far she had travelled from the shy girl who simply loved playing sport. It also reminded her that the work was being noticed.

But perhaps more importantly, Rachel sees recognition as a responsibility. She wants young girls to look at her story not as evidence that she is somehow exceptional, but as proof that their own ambitions are possible. For her, influence is not simply about being recognised. It is about opening doors for the person coming behind you.

Giving overlooked athletes a voice

Rachel’s desire to create opportunities extends beyond the work she does on the field. Through RA Media GH, she has created a platform focused on giving visibility to athletes and sports that are often overlooked because they lack the financial resources and commercial attention enjoyed by bigger sporting disciplines.

Her motivation is simple: talented athletes should not become invisible simply because they participate in a less-funded sport. Her role as Director of Corporate Communications at the Ghana Rugby Football Union has further developed her understanding of sports storytelling. She has learned that communication goes beyond social media posts; it involves understanding athletes, clubs, sponsors, partners, the media and the public, and knowing how to communicate effectively with each.

Those experiences have also influenced her own projects. She now thinks not only about what is being posted, but about the story being told, the audience it needs to reach and the opportunities that effective communication can create.

The woman behind the titles

Behind the achievements, however, is a side of Rachel that the public rarely sees.
There have been sleepless nights, financial constraints, exhaustion and moments when she questioned whether the sacrifices were worth it. There were days when she had little or no money but still had responsibilities to meet, and nights when the pressure became overwhelming.
She has cried herself to sleep. She has felt discouraged.

She has experienced moments when she simply did not have the energy to keep going.
Yet she kept finding reasons to get back up.
Sometimes it was the athletes depending on her. Sometimes it was the people who believed in what she was building. And sometimes it was simply the voice inside her reminding her that she had come too far to stop.

Those experiences have made her more resilient, but also more understanding of the struggles people may be facing behind the scenes.

Building a legacy beyond herself

Rachel is still learning how to balance the demands of her work with family, friends and life outside sport. She admits that she can become so focused on the next responsibility that she forgets to slow down. Her family and friends often remind her to rest, and she is learning to accept that stepping away from work is not a lack of commitment.
But when she speaks about the future, her focus quickly returns to the next generation.

Through initiatives such as Her Field, Her Rules, she wants girls and women to understand that they belong in every part of sport, as athletes, coaches, administrators and leaders. She wants them to have more opportunities, greater confidence and fewer barriers than she had to navigate.

Ultimately, Rachel does not want her legacy to be defined by the titles she has held or the organisations she has built. She wants it to be measured by the people she inspires and the opportunities she creates.

Her story began with a shy girl who found confidence playing sport, often alongside boys because there were few girls who shared her passion. Today, she is helping create spaces where the next generation of girls can walk into sport without questioning whether they belong.
And perhaps that is the greatest measure of Rachel Ankomah’s journey: not simply how far she has gone, but how many people she hopes to take with her.

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