NAIROBI, Kenya, August 20 – National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) secretary general Francis Mutuku insists that long term investments in Kenyan sports are the only way for the country to increase its medal tally at the Olympics.
Mutuku says athletes need adequate preparations, replete with all the requisite equipment if they are to go toe-to-toe with heavyweights, such as the United States and China.
“It’s been researched and discovered that to win a medal at the Olympics, you need to put in a lot of investments. Not the allowance we give to athletes…not the last minute preparations we give them. It is over 10 years period…that’s what it takes to make a champion,” he said.
Mutuku added: “Therefore as a country we need to ask ourselves which sport and which team we have invested in consistently and strategically for the last 10 years. Until we do that, we can only go to the Olympics and cross our fingers, have a lot of expectations, but the reality is sports is an investment. We need to start adopting long term planning for our athletes.”
The secretary general pointed out that long term investments entail construction of modern training facilities, such as stadia, and diversification into other disciplines.
“Diversification is probably what we need to focus on…to have more sports and probably get more opportunities. Just as other people are attacking our strongholds (athletics), we should also be attacking their strongholds,” Mutuku said.
He elaborated: “We have a lot of prospects but at the end of the day it is all about how much resources or funding we need to put up. We need to look at our stadiums…which stadiums are our athletes using? We focus too much on the concrete…on what is not relevant to the athlete and therefore they don’t have anywhere to train. People kept saying our athletes don’t have a strong finish but they did not train on track but outdoors.”
‘Could do better’
Team Kenya finished 17th on the medal standings of the Paris Olympics with four gold, two silver and five bronze.
This performance was enough to cement their position as Africa’s top performer for the second edition running, following on from Tokyo 2021.
However, certain quarters of the Kenyan support were still unsatisfied by their performance, believing that the team could have done better.
Mutuku, nonetheless, believes qualifying for the Olympics was in itself a huge achievement for everyone on the team.
“When our athletes have struggled, woken up in the morning to train and qualified for the Olympics, that is already a big achievement. It takes a lot of work to be an Olympian and when you are an Olympian, you are one all your life. So all the athletes did well to qualify and participate in the Olympics. Look at the countries that led us…the United States with a population of 300 million…let alone their GDP and the fact that they have the strongest college programme,” he said.
With the next edition of the Olympics set for Los Angeles in 2028, Mutuku says preparations for the same should begin in earnest.
“We are closing everything Paris Olympics in the next 30 days and immediately embark on LA 2028 and Dakar 2026 (Youth Olympics). Those are our immediate targets in terms of international level. At local level, we will continue supporting our local federations in the different sports activities,” he said.
