Kenya’s pioneer female Olympians set stage for success we enjoy today

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe (right) shares a light moment with Rose Tata Muya at the media conference at Kasarani stadium on July 11, 2017. 

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • In the 1988 Seoul Olympics,  Joyce Odhiambo (100m), Susan Sirma (3,000m), Rosa Tata-Muya (400m hurdles), and Pascaline Wangui (marathon) were in a 74-member Team Kenya.

Kenyan women have made slow but stead strides at the Olympics which is worth celebrating as we mark International Women’s day.

Going through the country’s records at the Olympics, I was amazed at how long it took our Olympics selectors to ensure gender parity in Team Kenya.

Kenya competed at the Olympics for the first time as an independent country in the 1964 Summer Games in Tokyo where Wilson Kiprugut Chumo won the country’s first ever Olympic medal, a bronze medal in men’s 800 metres. That was Kenya’s first and only medal in that edition of the Games.

But Kenya had been to 1956 and 1960 editions of the Games in Melbourne and Rome respectively as a colony and a protectorate.  

There were no women in Team Kenya in 1956, 1960 and 1964 editions of the Olympic Games.  It took a whole 12 years from the time Kenya first competed at the Olympics for  women to be included in the team - at the1968 Olympics in Mexico.

At the 1968 Olympic Games, a 36-member Team Kenya had 33 men and three women. Of the three women, Tekla Chemabwai  who ran the 400m race but did not go past the heats, stood out for being the youngest participant for Kenya at 18 years and 104 days.

The other women in the team were Elizabeth Chesire (800m) and Lydia Stephens (100m and 200m). Chemabwai had another first. In 1973 in Lagos,  She would became the first Kenyan woman to win a medal at the all African Games after timing 54.06 seconds to claim bronze in 400m.

Four years after Mexico in 1972 Olympics in Munich,  there were even fewer Kenyan women at the Games. A 57-member Team Kenya had only two women in the squad -  Chemabwai (400m) and Chereno Maiyo (800m).  

Other than the infamous Munich Massacre in which members of a Palestinian terrorist group took members of the Israeli Olympics team hostage after killing two, Kenyans will remember Munich as the place where Chemabwai, competing in 400m, reached the quarter-finals of her event. 

Her husband, the late Julius Sang, was part of Kenya’s gold medal winning 4x400m relay team of Robert Ouko, Charles Asati and Munyoro Nyamau.

Kenya boycotted the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada  alongside other 22 African countries to protest New Zealand rugby team’s tour of Apartheid South Africa, and 1980 Olympics in Moscow in solidarity with USA to protest Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

At the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, a 61-man Team Kenya of 55 men and five women (Justina Chepchirchir - 1,500m, Selina Chirchir - 800m,  Hellen Kimaiyo, Mary Wagaki - marathon,  and Ruth Waithera (400m).

Age 15, Chirchir, a gold medallist over 800m at the 1986 World Junior Championships, was the youngest member in Team Kenya at the 1984 Olympics.

She competed at the Games while still a school girl at Singore Girls Secondary School. She also won gold medal in 800m and 1,500m at the 1987 All Africa Games in Nairobi. Waithera reached the finals of 200m and 400m in Los Angeles.

In the 1988 Seoul Olympics,  Joyce Odhiambo (100m), Susan Sirma (3,000m), Rosa Tata-Muya (400m hurdles), and Pascaline Wangui (marathon) were in a 74-member Team Kenya.

Sirma is remembered for claiming a bronze medal over 3,000m at the 1991 World Championships, becoming the first black African woman to win a track and field medal at World Championship.

At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, the number of women in Team Kenya rose to nine and later to 10 (1992 Barcelona Olympics) but medals still eluded Kenyan women. In 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Pauline Konga claimed silver in 5,000m, becoming the first Kenyan woman to win an Olympics medal.

In 2000 Olympics in Sydney, there were 20 women in 54-member Team Kenya,  and 24 in 46-member Team Kenya for 2004 Athens Olympics.

In 2008 Beijing Olympics, Pamela Jelimo (800m) and Nancy Lagat (1,500m) became the first Kenyan women to win an Olympics gold medal, while Mildred Akinyi became first Kenyan woman to compete in taekwondo at the Olympics.

Kenya’s pioneer female Olympians set the stage for the current success. 

There have been other firsts for Kenya in Sabriner Simader (the country’s first alpine skier at the 2018 Winter Olympics), and Shehzana Anwar (Kenya’s first female archer at the 2016 Olympics).. Let’s celebrate our pioneer female Olympians.