NOC-K: Supporting the Olympic dream
National Olympic Committee of Kenya President Paul Tergat with members of the Panama football team in Miramas, Southern France, in June, 2023. Miramas city will host Team Kenya’s pre-Olympic training camp in July, 2024.
What you need to know:
- The basic principles of Olympics remain true 127 years later, captured well by the father of modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, ‘’The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing in not to have won, but to have fought well.’’
There are millions of athletes in many different sports all over the world. For most of them, their dream and aspirations being to make it to the Olympic Games, regarded as the most prestigious stage for an athlete to participate in.
Since the modern Olympics started in 1896 as a way of bringing nations together in celebration of sporting excellence, people from all over the world are putting in the effort, investment and aspirations to reach this global stage every Olympiad. To be understood is that the Olympics is a long journey.
The 16 days of the Olympic Games is a culmination of four years, and for some more than that, of planning and preparation.
Only 10,000 athletes from all over the world will make it to participate in the Paris 2024 Olympics, but the others who will not, will have rigorously planned, trained, attempted qualification multiple times, they would have given their everything in the pathway to Olympics.
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya’s primary objective is to join the other 205 National Olympic Committees of the world in this celebration every four years.
As a country, we aim to get as many medals as possible in each edition of the Games, but at the core of the Games is participation.
While we embark on 365 days countdown to the Olympics, it’s been an ongoing journey for most of our athletes in the last few years.
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya has put a team together in collaboration with the Government of Kenya, National Federations and sponsors, to be able to support the dreams of these athletes.
Cue in the famous cliché of it takes a village, the support is in many ways.
The parent providing initial resources to their child, the normal citizen meeting an athlete and urging them on, the fan buying a ticket to go watch a game, the teacher and the coach imparting skills and knowledge, the clubs providing platforms to belong to a team or access resources, the media highlighting the prowess of an athlete. We are all in this journey to support the Olympic dream.
As the clock starts ticking today, for those who will make it to the Olympic stage on July 26, 2024, we wish them all the best as they fly the Kenyan flag. For those who will have walked this journey and not made it, we will celebrate them for daring to dream.
The basic principles of Olympics remain true 127 years later, captured well by the father of modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin, ‘’The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing in not to have won, but to have fought well.’’
Mutuku is Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee of [email protected]
