Africa-Press – Kenya. National Olympic Committee of Kenya secretary-general Francis Mutuku has called for forbearance with various Team Kenya squads even as they seek to consistently churn out world-class athletes as part of their legacy project.
Mutuku admitted it will take some time before the fruits of NOC-K’s performance-based approach to sports development are seen.
“We have to give them time to build up, especially if it’s a young upcoming team. The others we need to have good performance in Commonwealth Games, but the bottom line here is we want to start preparing for Olympic Games now,” he said.
He said the performance-based approach will rely largely on technology to ensure that only the best sportspersons represent the country in their respective disciplines.
“Sports science is something we as NOC-K must embrace because it entails several aspects of the sport. First, in terms of data, we need to know what we have. Some of the people have shared, and yes, there is data which is resident in different places but now we want to be able to have a national database for our top athletes,” Mutuku explained.
He posed: “What are some of these technologies we can use to assess all Kenya athletes traveling so that when a coach makes a decision who to drop and who to pick is not purely based on subjective feelings?”
Mutuku was speaking over the weekend in Naivasha during a Sports Journalists Association of Kenya (SJAK) Mental Wellness Seminar at Hylise Hotel.
He further revealed NOC-K have engaged affiliate federations to develop new criteria for selecting players to represent the country in various international competitions.
“The criteria should bring out the best Kenyans and should be made public for everyone to know what was used to select the athletes. Most importantly, they should be understandable for all players,” he said.
The eight-point legacy project addresses the following aspects of sports: gender; athlete development; governance; hosting of international events; athletes’ welfare; federation development; education and research; and reward recognition scheme.
It targets Paris (2024), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032) Olympics.
“Each and every event and program we are going to be involved in will be tied towards what we want to achieve. Even the team that is going to the Commonwealth Games will not only be for that particular event but with an eye on future competitions,” Mutuku said.
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