At the snow-covered slopes of the French Alps a Kenyan girl descends with an infectious smile in a leopard printed red, black and white kit and crosses the finish line of the downhill course at the World Ski Championships held in Courchevel-Meribel, France.
You can never guess that she just descended 800 metres at speeds of over 100 kilometers per hour. Downhill probably demands the most courage of all alpine events. This is the story of Kenya’s first alpine skier, Sabrina Wanjiku Simader.
She may not have finished at the podium but in terms of the value she has created for Kenya, the performance is not only of gold level standard, but the rare platinum level.
Alpine skiing has five events — downhill, slalom, giant slalom, super-G and combined. Sabrina competes in super-G and downhill.
The three-person team of Sabrina is the smallest and is no match to the big nations with technical directors, multiple coaches, team managers, equipment technicians, nutritionists and medical team.
Sabrina’s long-standing volunteer coach, Christian Reif, doubles up as the equipment technician and in between training will be found cleaning and waxing the skiis in preparation for the competition.
He is also the designated driver and over long drives interchanges with Sabrina as they drive across Europe to competitions because Sabrina needs enough points to qualify to World Cup,s World Championships and Olympics.
Sabrina’s mother, Sarah Simader, is her passionate supporter. Besides being her manager, she is also the physiotherapist, and of course her mentor and counsellor.
You will find her at the slopes of the mountains carrying huge bags containing Sabrina’s winter jackets which she promptly gives her in between her media interviews to keep her warm.
The inspiration Sabrina has provided has illuminated the path for very many Kenyans living in diaspora with access to winter sports. In the coming years we expect this participation to grow and who knows when the dominance of strong competitors will start.
This time round the only other Kenyan family present at the fan stands was of 15-year-old Issa Laborde, a budding junior skier.
Accompanied by his parents and three young sisters, they made a one-and-half-hour drive to cheer Sabrina.
There was a great moment of pleasantries exchanged between the current competitor and the upcoming youngster who hopes to compete in the 2024 Gangwong Winter Youth Olympics in South Korea.
Sabrina is working her way up for a possible podium finish at World and Olympics level. A big limitation is insufficient funds to enable her train effectively. Substantial investment needs to be made in order to maintain the good performance.
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya in it’s bid to support the dreams of athletes will continue providing all the support possible but we do realize that this may be a drop in the ocean of the substantial needs of winter sports.
