Importance of pre-Olympic Games visits
National Olympic Committee of Kenya President Paul Tergat with members of the Panama football team in Miramas, Southern France, in June, 2023. Miramas city will host Team Kenya’s pre-Olympic training camp in July, 2024.
What you need to know:
- By the time athletes arrive at the venue, all should be ready to allow the crème de la crème to perform at their best in their biggest moment
- NOC-K is determined to ensure everything for Team Kenya is ready by the time the first athletes lands in France
- With 257 days to the Paris Olympics, an advance team from Kenya composed of the lead management team – headed by the Chef-De-Mission, government representatives and the Kenyan Embassy in France - shall have pre-event visits in France this November to ensure preparations are in top form
In July, 2024, athletes from around the world will gather for the biggest stage in sports – the 38th edition of the Olympics in Paris, France.
The hosts of each edition are appointed at least 10 years in advance, and they benefit from knowledge transfer and living in the experience of the Olympics preceding the specific edition. Elaborate arrangements are made considering the magnitude of the Games.
To put into perspective, only about 10,000 of the millions of elite athletes make it to the competition with even more losing out in the numerous qualifying events in the four years of the qualification period.
By the time athletes arrive at the venue, all should be ready to allow the crème de la crème to perform at their best in their biggest moment.
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) is determined to ensure everything for Team Kenya is ready by the time the first athletes lands in France.
With 257 days to the Paris Olympics, an advance team from Kenya composed of the lead management team – headed by the Chef-De-Mission, government representatives and the Kenyan Embassy in France - shall have pre-event visits in France this November to ensure preparations are in top form.
The pre-visits will include site visits and meetings with the Organising Committee of the Paris Olympic Games.
The team will be looking to achieve various things during the pre-visits including, orientating themselves with the venues to know the distances between venues, to check on venues’ readiness and technical assessments, to assess facilities available at the Villages and identify space for Team Kenya.
Further, the meetings with the Organising Committee is to interact with the Organisers on various functions that will enhance Team Kenya’s experience at the Games as well as understanding the critical element of protocol to plan appropriately.
During the same period, the delegation will pay a visit to Team Kenya’s Pre-Games camp ahead of the Olympics in Bouche-du-Rhone Region, South of France, with the base city being Miramas Metropole.
NOC-K has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Bouches-du-Rhône, for pre-Games training for Team Kenya. For a training camp to work, all key variables must be in place; including the facilities, good climate and environment, transport, accommodation, nutrition, and adequate level of technical experts, everything that Miramas is offering Team Kenya.
Kenyan athletes are already enjoying this partnership and will continue to do so until the Olympics.
This fall, Tae-kwon-do and Sports Shooting were beneficiaries of the training facilities, taking advantage of the state-of-the-art sports facilities and technical support in which they used to prepare for their Olympic qualifying events.
We would like to assure our athletes of our continued commitment to give them the optimum preparations and participation conditions, and the advance team will ensure that everything goes as planned to ensure the most memorable Olympic experience.
Mutuku is the Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya.
