NOC-K’s decision on skier Wanjiku unfair
Revelation by Kenyan skier Sabrina Wanjiku Simader that she will not be participating in this year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, due to lack of funding by the government is as baffling as it is infuriating.
The fact that the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) could not fund a single athlete to this momentous event calls into question the role of the federation.
Wanjiku has invested her time and energy to become the first female Alpine skier to represent the country at the Winter Olympics, and this blatant disregard for her dream borders on the callous.
The young skier will be remembered for being named the African European Sportswoman of the year in 2017. In 2019, she was listed in the Forbes Africa “30 under 30” after she competed for Kenya at the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea in 2018.
Wanjiku, 23, has worked her fingers to the bone to qualify for the upcoming Olympics, but sadly she won’t be featuring because she was let down by the very people who have been entrusted with the job of nurturing and growing sporting talent.
What exactly informed NOC-K’s decision to hang Wanjiku out to dry? The federation should come out to state clearly why this act of omission occurred yet the athlete claims she was in constant communication with officials and had been promised full support right from training to the actual Games.
Granted, this is an expensive sport but wouldn’t it have made more sense if NOC-K had declared its inability to fund Wanjiku right from the beginning instead of offering her piecemeal support before completely abandoning her?
It is unfair that the officials chose to dim the sportswoman’s Olympics dream even before she could compete against the best in the sport.
The Ministry of Sports is getting a supplementary allocation of Sh37,186,009 from the National Treasury, which, therefore, means there is no excuse about unavailability of money for the youngster to travel to China for the Games that begin this weekend.
As the athlete and the country reel from this shameful injustice, sports administrators should be reminded of the responsibility they have been charged with.
It is an open secret that sports money is wasted and embezzled year in, year out. Wouldn’t it make sense if some of this money was channelled into supporting athletes like Wanjiku?
