•Addressing the media on Thursday, NOCK said it is strategising to field more sports to raise Kenya's stakes at the quadrennial Olympics.
•As part of the ambitious plan, NOCK said Sabrina Wanjiku Simader, the only Kenyan skier, will have a greater chance of competing at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.
Image: REUTERS
The National Olympic Committee of Kenya has revealed plans to boost the country's medal prospects at the Olympics by ramping up the number of non-traditional sports.
Addressing the media on Thursday, NOCK said it is strategising to field more sports to raise Kenya's stakes at the quadrennial Olympics.
As part of the ambitious plan, NOCK said Sabrina Wanjiku Simader, the only Kenyan skier, will have a greater chance of competing at the upcoming Winter Olympic Games.
“We have agreed to put Sabrina on the Winter Olympic support in 2026,” the Olympic body's secretary general Francis Mutuku said.
Sabrina is the first female Alpine skier in history to represent Kenya at the Winter Olympics at the Ski World Cup.
Mutuku has tipped the Kenyan prodigy who started skiing at the age of three in the snowy Alps of Austria to set a milestone at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics.
The games will take place from February 6-22 in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
NOCK similarly hailed the milestone set by Kenyan German-born fencer Alexandra Ndolo who made history last Sunday by becoming the first Kenyan woman to ever compete in a major at the FIE fencing world cup.
The country also plans to host a beach event in the new year to scout for quality talent that can fly the country's flag on the international stage.
“In the last games held in Cape Verde, we were given athletes who could not compete effectively. The Africa beach games will be qualifiers for the World Beach Games,” said Mutuku.
Additionally, the Olympics Committee said they would send a selected team of Kenyan athletes to pre-Olympic training camps in Southern France to boost Kenya's medal prospects.
“We are planning to start training in Southern France about 30-35 days in advance before the Paris 2024 Olympics. The idea is to give our athletes a chance to enhance their qualification chances and allow them to acclimatize ahead of the games.”
As part of the exchange programme, Mutuku said a French delegation would be visiting the country in September next year.
The secretary-general said it would continue offering the prerequisite support needed to propel Kenyan athletes to dizzy heights.
“We have a wide range of programs including the Olympic scholarships that allow our athletes to qualify for the Olympics,” Mutuku said.
“We also have the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) scholarships, the Continental support programs, as well as the team support programs,” he added.
NOCK president Paul Tergat said the Olympic body had a tight schedule of activities coming up in the new year. “We have a lot of activities coming up next year and we shall be releasing the full schedule in due course,” Tergat said.
Tergat said they will continue to roll out the Olympic solidarity program. Over 40 programs are run each year in various projects both for sports development and promotion of Olympic Values.
NOCK deputy president Waithaka Kioni said a meeting with Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba at Moi Stadium Kasarani proved fruitful and laid the ground for a promising future.
“We had a meeting with the CS and I must say the future is bright,” Kioni said.