This week the mayor of Miramas, a city in the South of France, hosted a welcome event for Kenyan athletes. The event was held at the City Hall and attended by leaders in the municipality.
This was by all means a great honour for Kenyan sports and specifically for the athletes. Sharon Wakoli, Faith Ogallo, Jullie Musangi of taekwondo and Priscilla Mburu of shooting had this singular honour of being welcomed to the city for training.
The women’s rugby sevens team is currently in South Africa for a month’s training ahead of the Olympic qualifiers and the new 15s World Competitions Tier 3.
Kenya’s boxing team “Hit Squad” trained in Havana, Cuba for two weeks before flying to Senegal for the Olympic qualifiers which end this week.
National women’s volleyball team Malkia Strikers, as part of their preparations for the African Nations Championship — which was also an Olympic qualifier — travelled to Morocco under the FIVB Empowerment Programme.
The preparation of teams for major championships is taking a turn for the best. In the past we have had rushed preparations, and in the worst of cases, we have had teams assembled at the airport so as to go for major competitions.
Since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, we are trying to improve preparation of our teams. We are still a long way from getting it right but our efforts are critical steps towards attaining close to ideal plans.
Sending athletes to train in various parts of the world is very critical. The environment in which they train is of elite standards which is necessary for good performance.
Elite competition requires our athletes to be prepared mentally, physically and socially.
Placing them in the right environment helps them fully focus on their training and gets the technical team to bring out the best of their abilities.
At the very least, a place athletes can get the needed dietary requirements, sufficient sleep for rest and high-level training. Sometimes just the daily needs such as food and rent can be very limiting to individuals whom we expect so much from.
Some of the countries we picked for our athletes to train in have advanced equipment and technology, which is not available locally. The training of different skill sets and performance tracking is essential for maximum benefit.
The quick wins for sending our athletes to high performance centers is clearly visible. Our taekwondo. boxing and rowing athletes have been doing strength and conditioning sessions, and this builds team synergies.
Staying in France for several weeks ahead of the Olympics helps create familiarity as the athletes interact with the community and adjust culturally.
Ultimately, we must create our own high-performance centres in Kenya but with 313 days to Paris 2024 we will continue sending our athletes to these Elite Performance Centers.
Mutuku is the Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya. [email protected]
