Plight of Kenya’s taekwondo Olympian Faith Ogallo

Olympian Faith Ogallo is disappointed with the lack of support she is getting in taekwondo, even as she is expected to qualify to represent the country at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Ogallo opened up on her plight after she returned home from Cote d’Ivoire where the fourth-seed won a bronze medal. She says she is almost giving up.

Ogallo defeated fifth-seeded Carlota Munave from Swaziland 16:2 in round one and 14:2 in round two in quarter-finals before losing to Fatima-ezzahra Aboufaras in semi-final stage in the heavyweight category at the African Taekwondo Championships held in Abidjan on November 5 and 6.

Fatima-ezzahra won in Round One (2:2) after she was given by the system and dominated in round 2 (10:1) in Abidjan.

Ogallo also won a bronze medal at the African Championships in 2021 in Senegal. “I’m just confused because I don’t know the fate ahead of us. We used to attend many tournaments during (Cabinet Secretary) Amina Mohammed’s time. But this time round, it’s very tough for Team Kenya. There are no training camps nor tournaments,” observed the 29-year-old. She noted that she has no support completely “and yet everyone is expecting us to qualify.”

 “I am just confused. We’re being hit hard by the economy. At times, I can’t even afford my bus fare from Machakos where I live to the training place in South ‘C’ CID training school which is Sh500 to and fro,” said Ogallo.

Being a professional athlete without a job, she says, is really frustrating.

 But given an opportunity to go for the Olympics qualification tournament, I will try my best to qualify,” she noted.

The African Olympic Qualification Tournament will take place in Dakar, Senegal on February 10 and 11, 2024.

Ogallo trains with the Kenya Police Taekwondo Team since she graduated from Kibabii University with a Bachelor of Social Work’s degree.

“They have offered me a chance to train there for free under their coach Linus Marangu. Apart from travelling from Machakos where there are no taekwondo professionals, to Nairobi on a daily basis, I have no physiotherapist. I pay around Sh5,000 once a month because I can’t afford a weekly one. I have to buy lunch, too,” observes Ogallo.

Ogallo lost to Milica Mandic in the preliminary round at the Tokyo 2020 Games. The Serbian went all the way to become the Olympic champion.

Ogallo told Nation Sport that she has tried to apply for jobs several times, but unsuccessfully.

 “I had applied for my Masters Degree, but I had to drop it and the Olympics qualification journey because I couldn’t afford both. I tried joining forces, but all was in vain.

“It has reached a point of almost giving up because most of the Olympians were offered job opportunities in the forces, but I was left out.

“It’s really frustrating that I have been battling alone and I have chosen to speak. No sponsorship at all,” said Ogallo.

Before getting the chance to train with the police team, Ogallo says she used to train at Kenya Pipeline Company taekwondo talent center in Embakasi.

“I was promised that if I happened to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, I would be offered a job which never came to pass. When I used to train there, they provided bus fare, lunch and the training venue, but later on they dropped all that, and could only manage to offer the team with the training venue,” noted Ogallo.

With time, Ogallo says, they turned it into a club and she was chased out of it. “That’s how it ended for me. Never giving up, I joined the police club and proceeded with my training. I am with the police club, but as a civilian,” says Ogallo.

She says that she no longer goes to the gym for strength and conditioning because she cannot afford to pay Sh4,500 monthly.

“Unfortunately, strength and conditioning is very key in training. I have chosen to speak. So many athletes are going through a lot of frustrations. Some have even died. Some are still struggling, but they’re all in silence because we don’t know who to address. At times, we get injuries which are very expressive to nurse and manage,” she noted.

Nonetheless, Ogallo says had a good experience at the just-concluded African Championships.

“We were a full team of 16 players (eight men and eight women) during training. We didn’t get funds from the Ministry of Sports. The National Olympic Committee of Kenya managed to sponsor the two of us from Kenya, Jully Musangi and I.

Sharon Wakoli, from Germany on a scholarship, came with the Germany team. Kenya had three players only in the competition,” explained Ogallo.