National Olympics Committee of Kenya ( NOC-K) Secretary General ( SG) Francis Mutuku has warned sports federations in the country at the same time urging them to start early preparations if Kenya will keep on dreaming of more medals at the Olympics.
Speaking on Tuesday in Nairobi at the sports body headquarters, Mutuku said that it takes an average of ten years to build an athlete that will win a gold medal at the summer Olympics games, if not, then the rest is a ride on fate that can get lucky once in a while.
” I know Kenyans are always expectant which is a good thing even though we still managed to claim top spot in Africa. We should however understand the way sports works especially when it comes to getting those athletes that win medals at the olympics, because preparations start as early as at ten years old with school going children,” said Mutuku adding that once the necessary knowledge is out there with coaches translating the same to athletes, now they also need the necessary infrastructure to enable them succeed.
The SG’s comments come in the wake of Kenya’s summit position continentally at the just concluded Paris 2024 summer Olympics games, an event that saw Kenya amass a total of eleven medals that had four gold, two silver and five bronze medals.
Mutuku is also calling on sports federations in the country to be committed on nurturing talents saying that an olympics medal can not be relied in luck, but only with preparations.
” By now we are already targeting Los Angeles in 2028 with athletes that have been nurtured from high schools, but we can also go down to primary schools and start there a journey that might take us 15 years and make history that will have some of us retire from sports management with legacies,” finalized Mutuku.
According to Mutuku, NOC-K’s agenda to conquer the world of sports competing with global heavyweights such as the USA and China is a dream that can only be achieved when the country will realize the importance of preparations and put efforts towards the same, with patience, Mutuku says that Kenya will not only conquer Africa, but the world one day.
