Do Kenyan Sports Authorities ever "Go back to the drawing Board" ?

 

In 1984 Australia went to the Olympics in Los Angeles and failed to win even a single medal. Their disappointment was heightened by the fact that their neighbors and arch rivals New Zealand won six gold medals. For the next four years, New Zealanders never let Australians forget the fact that theirs which is a tiny country of 3 million people won six gold medals compared with Australia with a population of 20 million and which emerged empty handed.

Embarrassed Australian sports officials set about to figure out a way to reverse the fortunes of their proud Nation. Their resolution was to create the Australian Institutes of sports. These Institutions are located in all of Australia's major cities and were created with support from the government  and the private sector. Here qualified instructors are charged with identifying young talent in every sport, training them, encouraging them and coaching them. The coaches are highly qualified and are capable of steering youngsters into the sports that suits them the best based on their physical attributes, then exposing them to world class training techniques.

The payback for the Nation of Australia has been huge. Australia finished second to the USA in the medal standings at the last two Olympics and won more medals per capita than any other Nation. Australia has also become a true powerhouse in sports such as basketball, volleyball, rugby, cricket and athletics for both men and women.

In 1996 the proud Nation of Great Britain won only one miserable gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. The Brits were ridiculed to no end by the American media. But after much hand wringing and sulking, they set about trying to find the reasons for their failure. It was then that they isolated the main reason : Poor funding for most Olympic sports. They resolved to set up a sports lottery to fund Olympic sports which had previously received little or no funding. Today the Brits are reaping the benefits of their lottery system. At the Athens Olympics in 2004, the Nation of Great Britain won 10 gold medals and a host of silver and bronze medals. Many of these medals came in sports such as rowing and archery that were now being funded by the sports lottery system. 

 

Kenya swept all the steeplechase medals at the Athens olympics but it was the only event where Kenyans celebrated

 Lets go back to the case of Kenya. The last time Kenya performed well in an international event was at the Seoul Olympics of 1988 when they won 5 gold medals.  Nowadays every time Kenya participates in an International event in any sport, their performance is miserable to say the least. And upon return, the routine is always the same. The sports officials point accusatory fingers at each other, their is plenty of griping among the sportsmen and women and a month later, all is forgotten.   Nothing concrete ever happens. Even when investigations are launched to find the reasons for the poor performance, the report is filed in a cabinet somewhere and collects dust for the rest of its life. So no structure is ever put in place to rectify the problems. At the next tournament, the same mistakes are made, the sportsmen are ill prepared to compete and another poor performance is registered.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Kenya won only one gold medal. Upon return, their was the usual cacophony of complaints. The Vice President even asked sports officials not to discuss the poor performance. In other words he would rather sweep the problem under the carpet and wait to repeat the same mistakes next time. We Kenyans wonder when the government and other stakeholders will finally wake up and do something to arrest the slide.

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