Full Team Kenya delegation for Paris Olympics officially released

The Preparatory Management Committee (PMC) for Team Kenya’s preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, in conjunction with the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K), have released a list of 161 people who will comprise Team Kenya’s Delegation to the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games will start on Friday, July 26, 2024, and run until Sunday, August 11. The Paralympic Games will start on Wednesday, August 28 and end on Sunday, September 8.

In the list, released on Thursday evening, the 161 have been classified into the following five groups: Head of Delegation, Athletes and Primary Team Officials, Referees and Umpires appointed by respective International Federations, Olympic Family, and Preparatory Management Team.

The Head of Delegation group will comprise only three people. Sports PS Eng. Peter Tum, who is also the Chairman of the Preparatory Management Committee (PMC), will travel as the Head of Delegation. The Preparatory Management Committee for Team Kenya’s participation at Olympic Games was gazetted on February 16, 2024, and its role was to oversee preparation for the Games, review work plans and budgets from the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K).

PS Tum will be assisted in the Head of Delegation group by Webuye West MP Daniel Wanyama and West Pokot Senator Julius Murgor. The latter duo will attend to oversight the Games on behalf of Parliamentary Committee of Sports Culture and the Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare respectively.

Speaking during a Press Briefing earlier on Thursday morning at the Talanta Plaza, PS Tum emphasized on the Government’s involvement Team Kenya’s qualifiers, preparation, and eventual participation at the Olympic Games.

“Government is the primary funding body of the Olympic Games,” he said, before adding, “Beyond funding, the government, through the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports, is involved in the planning and execution of Team Kenya’s participation at the Olympic Games.”

Kipchoge Keino, a honorary member of the International Olympic Committee and also a two-time Olympic gold medalist, is expected to travel under the Olympic Family group which will also include NOC-K President Paul Tergat (also a member of the IOC), NOC-K Secretary General Francis Mutuku, former rugby player Humphrey Kayange who is an IOC Member under the Athletes Commission, and Lt. Gen. [Rtd] Jackson Tuwei who is a World Athletics Vice President and President of Athletics Kenya.

At the Press Briefing, NOC-K Secretary General Francis Mutuku described the Olympic Family as the leadership of the Olympic Games across the world under the IOC.

“In Kenya we are privileged to have Keino, Tergat, and Kayange as members of the IOC. The President of Athletics Kenya and the NOC-K Secretary General are additional members to Kenya’s Olympic Family,” Mutuku said.

Athletes and Primary Team officials will form the bulk of the delegation, accounting for 124 people in the travelling delegation. Already, some athletes and team officials are in Team Kenya’s camp in Miramas, a southern City in France where Team Kenya athletes will stay briefly to acclimatize to the weather in France before switching base to Paris when the Olympic Games approach.

The country will be represented by 76 athletes across six sports: athletics (45), fencing (1), judo (1), rugby (14), swimming (2), and volleyball (13). Five other athletes – three in volleyball and one each in judo and rugby – will travel as training partners.

On athletes, NOC-K President Paul Tergat expressed confidence in the team’s level of preparation and assured the country of good results.

“We are confident that the preparations and support our athletes have received will yield good results. Since the 2020 Olympic Games, we have included pre-Games training camps in the country hosting the Olympic Games to assist our athletes to acclimatize. That will help make a difference in how our athletes adjust to the weather and the time zones before the Games start,” Tergat said.

Among the 43 team officials, 26 will travel as coaches (21) or assistant coaches (3) or strength and conditioning coach (1) or trainer. The list of team officials also include six team managers (one for each sport that Kenya will be represented in), a Chief Medical Officer, two doctors, and eight physiotherapists.

The Chief Medical Officer, identified as Dr. Ondiege Ocholla, will be incharge of co-ordination and delivery of health care services to the Team Kenya delegation. The two doctors and two physiotherapists will attend to athletes in all the sports.

John Ogolla (weightlifting), Stephen Odhiambo (football), and Treasa Mutuku (tennis) will travel as international federations appointed referees and umpires.

The remaining 26 people in the list will form Team Kenya’s Management Team at the Olympic Games and are expected to perform various administrative functions. The management team will be led by Shadrack Maluki who will travel as Team Kenya’s Chef de Mission. He will be deputized by Barnabas Korir.

Speaking during the Press Briefing, NOC-K Secretary General Francis Mutuku explained the role of the management team at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“Beyond the primary team officials who offer technical assistance to the athletes, there other people who are needed to offer more support to the athletes by executing functions such as accreditation, management and organisation of transport and logistics in the Olympic Village area and the Competitions area, and media activities,” Mutuku said.

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