Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba (centre) and Kenya Sevens Rugby player Patrick Odongo serve food during the sendoff dinner for the Olympics-bound team in Nairobi on July 8, 2024.
Kenyan athletes at this year's Olmpic Games in Paris will enjoy home cuisine.
Team Kenya officials, led by CEO Wanjiru Mbugua-Karani, have revealed plans to get athletes to eat familiar foods to help them perform well.
Not wanting to upset the athletes' dietary preferences, which could affect their results, Team Kenya officials have arranged for special chefs to be present at the team's high-performance training camp in Miramas, southern France, and at the Olympic Village in Paris.
“Food is an integral part of every sports personality’s life and an empty stomach can never produce results, no matter how much you invest technically,” Mbugua-Karani said on Thursday.
When she and Shadrack Maluki, Team Kenya’s head of delegation, attended a seminar for team managers in Paris in July last year, they visited various functional areas for the Games.
“The organisers were keen to know how each delegation would arrive in Paris, the number of athletes in the contingent, and the disciplines they would be participating in,” Mbugua-Karani said.
She pointed out that they also discussed the type of meals that would be served in the village, after which the Kenyan delegation decided to take steps to ensure that Kenyan athletes enjoyed good food at the Games.
“We realised that the type of meals that would be served at the Games would be Western and West African cuisines,” she explained.
Mbugua-Karani said the delegation had requested that Kenyan food be served in the Olympic Village, and even made a video presentation describing how ugali and chapati are prepared.
She said the Games organisers agreed to their proposal and they engaged Kenyan chefs based in Paris.
“We shall ferry maize flour, tea leaves, cooking sticks, and sieves for Team Kenya to Paris since the rest of the ingredients like beef, chicken, fish and most vegetables are available in Paris,” said Mbugua-Karani.
She said that when Team Kenya first visited Miramas last year, they did not like the French cuisine, and the officials then made plans to change things during the team's subsequent visits.
Team Kenya’s head of logistics, Shoaib Vayani, said the Kenyan athletes are travelling to France on the national carrier Kenya Airways, and Air France.
Vayani said that both Kenya Airways and Air France have given concessions to Kenyan athletes, allowing them to carry three bags in addition to sports equipment at no cost, as long as communication is made in advance.
“We have dedicated desks in Nairobi, Paris and Marseille for Team Kenya to ensure that our athletes and team management are well facilitated,” said Vayani.
Nearly 10,500 athletes from 205 nations are expected in Paris to compete in 32 sporting disciplines featuring 329 events.
As of June 30, eighty-three Kenyan athletes had qualified for the Olympics in six sports – athletics, rugby sevens, judo, fencing, volleyball, and swimming.
Kenya had 85 athletes in six disciplines at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, which were held in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
There was a drop in performance in the Tokyo Olympics where Kenya collected 10 medals – four gold, four silver and two bronze.
The 2016 Rio Olympics remains Kenya's best-ever performance with 13 medals – six gold, six silver and one bronze.
However, Kenya remains the most successful African nation at the Olympics, with 113 medals – 35 gold, 42 silver and 36 bronze.
