20 Kenyan federations chase Paris Olympics tickets

With the Olympic Games now exactly one year away, 20 Kenyan sports federations are on the pathway to qualifying for the Paris action.

Paris Wednesday held celebrations to commemorate 365 days to the Summer Games that return to the French capital for the first time in 100 years.

Officials from Kenya’s Ministry of Youth Affairs, the Arts and Sports alongside the executive committee of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) remain confident that Kenya’s build-up to the July 26 to August 11, 2024, Games is on track.

The NOC-K and ministry officials — led by Sports Principal Secretary Peter Tum and NOC-K President Paul Tergat — on Tuesday afternoon appeared before the National Assembly Committee on Sports, Culture and Tourism and assured that Kenya’s road to Paris has no potholes.

“As a committee, we have met 90 percent of the deadlines. The 10 percent which has not been met has been around the funding aspect which we are still working on,” NOC-K secretary Francis Mutuku told the parliamentary committee headed by Webuye West Member of Parliament Dan Wanyama, himself a former Kenya volleyball international and coach.

Wanyama implored the ministry and NOC-K to stay on track and plan early to ensure a bigger medal count in Paris.

The 20 federations chasing tickets to Paris represent athletics, archery, boxing, rowing, rugby, three-on-three basketball, canoeing, cycling, fencing and hockey.

Others handle handball, football, volleyball, indoor beach volleyball, swimming, wrestling, weightlifting and sport shooting, taekwondo and tennis.

Currently, the Kenyan boxing team is in Yaounde for the African Boxing Championships that run this week in the Cameroonian capital.

And they will have another shot at Paris tickets at the African Olympic Qualifiers to be held in Dakar from September 9 to 15.

Men’s sevens rugby qualifiers will run in Zimbabwe on September 16 and 17 with the women’s version to be hosted by Tunisia on October 14 and 15, with all other federations also busy chasing tickets to Paris between now and early next year.

Basically, the qualification process for the Olympic Games is guided by several factors, including the “Universality principle” which allows some federations with fewer athletes or teams get some allocation quota to participate in the Games, NOC-K explains in a Paris 2024 update.

“Currently, our swimming will benefit from this provision and any other as we move towards the Games,” NOC-K adds.

Continental Qualification is another pathway to the Olympics.

“This means we must send teams to these qualifier tournaments but, most importantly, they must prepare well for them through adequate support.
“The most important Olympic qualifying continental event is the Africa Games from which its winners gain automatic qualification to the Olympics. Rankings is the other pathway to the Olympic Games.”

NOC-K further explain that rankings are based on the International Federations and other recognised competitions, placement of athletes and team ranking, while Olympic Qualifiers are competitions that athletes and teams must feature in to earn points or progress towards the Olympics.

As it stands, Kenya is certainly almost 100 percent assured of 35 track and field tickets to Paris (20 men and 15 women) but subject to all getting the qualifying standards and meeting all anti-doping conditions.

Alexandra Ndolo, who switched nationality from German to Kenyan, is also in the driving seat to Paris as the top-ranked athlete in fencing.

Ndolo is currently competing in the Epee Women’s Senior Individual qualifiers as part of the FIE Fencing World Championships at the Fair Allianz MI.CO (Milano Convegni) in Milan.

Meanwhile, as the build-up to the Paris Olympics entered its final year yesterday, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach hailed the “very, very good” preparations.

Neutrals in Paris

Having sailed down the River Seine on Tuesday to get a taste of the spectacular opening ceremony on July 26, 2024, Bach formally invited 203 countries to take part in the Summer Games.

Russia and Belarus, its ally in the invasion of Ukraine, are not among the countries invited.

The IOC has however left the door open for Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part as neutrals in Paris without their teams competing. The participation of Russians and Belarusians could trigger a boycott by Ukraine.

Bach refused to be drawn on when the IOC would make a decision on the issue, but noted that many sports federations had heeded his body’s call to allow Russians and Belarusians to take part as neutrals in qualifying events.  

Additional reporting by AFP