Good luck, Team Kenya

After four years of waiting, the 33rd Summer Olympic Games will officially get underway with the unique opening ceremony along the Seine River in Paris, France, on Friday.

It’s rugby sevens, where Kenya has an interest, that will kick off the Summer Games on Wednesday at Stade de France in the games that have attracted 10,714 athletes in 32 sports.

Even though it could have been better, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K), the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports and federations combined efforts to give Team Kenya the best preparations.

Proper preparations started two years ago with NOC-K supporting teams from the qualification all through by providing funds and high performance setup both in and outside the country.

Kenya that will be represented by 72 athletes in six sports disciplines will be hoping for improved performance from the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games that were delayed to 2021 due to Covid-19. We hope that Athletics Kenya, NOC-K, coaches, athletes, athletes’ management and other stakeholders have worked behind the scenes to ensure that the country realises this dream.

Team Kenya collected 10 medals all in athletics from Tokyo Games; four gold, four silver and two bronze, which was a drop in performance from the country’s all-time best show at the 2016 Rio Games of 13 medals; six gold, six silver and one bronze.

For decades, athletics have been the country’s bread basket in terms of medal collection at major sporting events like the Olympic Games and it seems Paris Games won’t be an exemption. It’s heartwarming that the national volleyball team, Malkia Strikers, and Kenya Sevens rugby team make a return to the Olympics where fencing queen Alexandra Ndolo and judoka Zeddy Cherotich are set to debut. As we wish Team Kenya success, we hope NOC-K, the government and federations have drawn lessons on the need for early preparations after the country failed to qualify more events.