Team Kenya preps started four year ago and they have reaped what they sowed

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of emotions. The Olympics have delivered an electrifying mix of thrill and excitement, along with tense and nerve-racking moments.

We've witnessed both the exhilaration of victory and the agony of defeat, including unexpected injuries and disappointing performances. For Kenya, there's the ever-present threat of scandal, especially in a time when misinformation can easily fabricate controversies.

However, nothing equals the privilege and honour of serving the country at different levels of the Olympics. The constant thought of knowing that you have to put in a system to support athletes at the Olympics kept everyone awake. Wins and losses are separated by microseconds and every single action can have an incredible impact on the elite athlete's performance.

We have officially marked the end of Team Kenya’s Paris 2024 Olympic journey.

This journey began not at the Opening Ceremony, but four years ago. The National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K), along with the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy, and Sports, provided support to all teams in their Olympic qualification pathways through training camps and participation in qualifiers.

In a groundbreaking move, NOC-K for the first time supported track and field athletes even before they made the Kenyan team, the financial support was extended to the athlete’s individual coaches, physios, training partners and other support roles.

Incredible achievement

Many athletes and teams were awarded scholarships two to three years to the Games to fund their preparations. Some made it, and most missed out, but this is the nature of sports.

Only 10,500 athletes made it to the Olympics out of the millions who aspired to.

Out of the sports NOC-K supported, six disciplines qualified for the Paris Olympic Games -- Rugby Sevens men, volleyball women, fencing, athletics, swimming and judo.

Kenya was represented in fencing, for the first time, by Alexandra Ndolo while Zeddy Cherotich became the first woman to represent Kenya in judo.

Some 76 Athletes across the six sports flew the Kenyan flag high at the Paris Games and we would like to applaud them for shouldering the hopes and dreams of a whole nation with so much valour.

Our Shujaa were the first team to take to the Games, they won two games and finished ninth overall, an incredible achievement for a young team where only two players were returning Olympians. The average age of the team is 24 years. Technically it’s a team for the future and it can only get better as they make it back to the World Rugby Sevens series this season.

Triumphant athletics team

Malkia strikers, the only African representative at the Olympics., but up a superb fight and .won the hearts of the fans in Paris.

In fencing, it was such a dream to see the Kenyan flag flying at the Grand Palais, the venue of the competition. Ndolo was on a quest to win her country a historic medal, a loss by just a point in extra time of the first round may not be how she pictured her exit from the Games but she certainly inspired the next generation of Olympic fencers.

Zeddy Cherotich will forever be a trailblazer, qualifying for the Olympics in a sport she took up just two years ago supersedes the results.

Our two swimmers Maria Brunhlner and Ridhwan Mohammed were rewarded with new national records.

The Athletics programme was the last to kick off, 47 athletes made up of 27 debutants in events ranging between 100m to the Marathon, the youngest athletes, Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Faith Cherotich, both 20 years old.

After 10 days of action, the triumphant Athletics team wrapped up the Games ranked second in the world and first in Africa on the Athletics medal standings with 11 medals – four gold, two silver and five bronze.

Mutuku is Secretary General of NOC-K. [email protected]