Faith Ogallo's Olympic dream crushed in Dakar fiasco

It was a sad state of affairs in the Team Kenya camp after Olympian Faith Ogallo failed to compete at the 2024 African Taekwondo Olympic qualifiers in Senegal. She was part of five players from the squad of nine reduced to spectators at the qualifiers held from February 9-11 in Dakar.

Ogallo, who won silver at the 2019 African Games, was in the first batch of four players who travelled to Dakar on February 8. She was locked out of the qualifiers because of not attending the weighing-in.

Upon arrival from Dakar early on Wednesday, Ogallo expressed her disappointment at the whole experience.

“I just want to forget everything and move on. I have fought hard to represent Kenya, but unfortunately, all my efforts have not paid off,” she told Nation Sport.

“My Olympic dream was crushed, just like that. I am trying to heal slowly. Working for four years and then it ended up like that is very heart-breaking,” she added.

A letter of appeal regarding Ogallo’s situation from Kenya Taekwondo Federation (KTF) Secretary General George Wasonga to the World Taekwondo Federation president dated February 8 says registration fees had to be paid in US Dollars yet the Kenyan contingent had lacked cash as the Ministry of Sports had sent funds through the bank account of the leaders of the delegation.

“We were supposed to make all payments for any expenditure and also registration through credit card. However, the registration desk declined the use of a credit card because they did not have a card reader machine and also insisted on only accepting payments in dollars,” said Wasonga.

He noted that the attempt by Kenyan officials to pay for the registration in the local currency was also declined at the registration and they had to travel up to the airport to get the dollars and come back to pick up the accreditation cards for the athlete to be weighed.

The team then managed to get the accreditation cards only for Ogallo to be told that the weighing officials were out for a break. Wasonga said he was surprised at the technical meeting to find draws had already been done without the knowledge of the team leaders.  

“The name of Faith Ogallo in the heavyweight division was missing and we raised the issue and tried to appeal to have her in the draw to no success. The technical team instead asked the other team officials who had athletes in the same weight class if it was okay for the Kenyan athlete to be included in the draw, but it was only Morocco that declined and with that, the fate of the Kenyan athlete was sealed,” explained Wasonga in the letter.

Ogallo, the official added, was highly ranked in the weight division having featured in the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 

“We humbly in the spirit of one sport, one people, appeal to your good office to intervene in this matter and serve justice to the athlete,” Wasonga, who was one of the six officials with the team in Dakar, said.

Wasonga observed that the incident would do irreparable damage to Ogallo’s taekwondo career. 

“We humbly look forward to your kind consideration of our appeal for the athlete,” wrote Wasonga.  

Other Kenyan players locked out due to late arrival were able-bodied athlete Innocent Wafula as well as para-athletes Patrick Lolkalipai (U-58kg), Peter Kabani (U-63kg) and Joseph Owino (U-70kg).      

Para-athletes Stency Neema (Women Under-52 kilograms) and Julieta Lemuge (U-57kg) qualified for the 2024 Paralympic Games from the Dakar outing without breaking a sweat after their respective categories attracted just the two of them.

Neema and Lemuge qualified as gold medal winners of the categories. They are the only qualified athletes for the 2024 Paralympics from Sub-Saharan Africa.