For many athletes, retirement represents a difficult moment, marked by the sense of emptiness left by high-level competition. However, for former hockey player Hugo Inglis, the end of her international career marked the beginning of a new chapter. After more than 15 years in sport and four Olympic appearances, the New Zealander found a new mission: to help other athletes transform their influence, time, and resources into a force for change for various social and environmental causes.

For over a year now, Inglis has devoted her energy to High Impact Athletes, an organization she co-founded to connect the sporting community with initiatives related to climate action, global health, animal welfare, mental health, and gender-based violence. Her work has gained even greater relevance in the context of Earth Day, a date that this year promotes the theme “Our power, our planet” and highlights the need for individuals and communities to act on global challenges.

Finding a purpose beyond competition

Midway through her career, while still competing at the highest level, Hugo Inglis began to question what she wanted to do after hockey. This reflection gained momentum during her second Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, when she started thinking about how to give something back to society using the platform sport had given her. Beyond training sessions, travel, and competition, she realized there were urgent causes that needed attention and that athletes could play an important role in bringing visibility to them.

That desire led to the creation of High Impact Athletes, a platform designed to guide athletes from intention to concrete action. For Inglis, many people in sport feel a strong desire to help, but do not always know how or where to direct their efforts. The organization focuses precisely on that gap: helping athletes use their influence, money, or time effectively, supporting causes that can truly make a difference in people’s lives.

A platform connecting sport with urgent causes

One of the most important aspects of High Impact Athletes’ work is that it does not require athletes to focus on a single cause. The organization operates across five key pillars: climate change, global health and poverty, animal welfare, mental health, and gender-based violence. The idea is for each athlete to find a cause they identify with and build their own path to contribute.

Among the initiatives promoted by the organization is 1in3, a campaign focused on gender-based violence that emerged following the death of Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who died in September 2024 after being attacked by her partner. The campaign takes its name from the statistic that one in three women worldwide experiences some form of abuse. For Inglis, addressing this issue involves listening to experts, identifying which programs are effective, and supporting organizations that often lack the resources needed to expand their work.