Kenya’s Beijing Olympic Report Out

The Beijing 2008 Olympic’s report is out 6 months after the Games were officially closed. Some interesting findings indeed and a feeling of self-aggrandizing for the (National Olympic Committee of Kenya)NOCK officials boasting the best performance in the country’s Olympic participation;
Among the main features are;
- recommended training before major Games be at least 3 months,
- reward system to include coaches and team managers
- best performance overall since Kenya’s entry into the Olympic family in 1956
- strategic plans for the different disciplines need to be made in advance to be able to ensure a better way of realising more medals at the Games

Curious discrepancies;
- Despite not mentioning it, there were 2 athletes dropped. One under the recommendation of Athletics Kenya and the second on allegations of drugs usage- silent treatment to a hot issue such as drug scandal maybe fair but not enough.
- Total budget was pegged at KSh. 82.3 million, though the Government is said to have provided KSh. 86 million and a total sum of KSh. 200 million for both Olympics & Paralympics- so where did the 3.7 million go to? This is also not inclusive of corporate sponsorship which may have roughly been over 50 million
- Reserve athletes as would be the case for such occasions were replaced with officials (technical as they say) - are these really necessary? I’m yet to see what new ideas they’ve injected into sports
My thoughts
1.It is illusionary to think that we succeeded when we win all 14 medals from one discipline. If the other disciplines would have to justify their participation, at least a few other medals would have come Kenya’s way.
Fault:- Poor technical support- we don’t have the expertise and are not investing in it to ensure our sports men excel-look at boxing which had 4 boxers almost all eliminated in the preliminaries
2. Why do we have corporate involved in sports management to infuse some professionalism in some of the associations ? If we wait for some of the disciplines to be led by the current officials, we’ll be dead before the 2012 Games.
3. We’ll need to hold sports officials for monies spent in international meets. I find most officials as hangers-on for the ride ( and holidaying) rather than engage in networking for their respective disciplines as well as gauge their competition. Why would we be having officials carry their family members financed by public coffers ? Accountability !
Fault: Government officials are the worst hit. I understand more than one official had their families along with them for the 2 ½ weeks in Beijing. We’d have sacrificed these for a few youth who excelled to encourage new talent for the next Games- my illusions !