Why it pays to export sporting talent

Barhain's Ruth Jebet competes in the women's 3,000m steeplechase final in the athletics event during the 2016 Summer Olympics at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on August 15, 2016. PHOTO | JOHANNES EISELE | AFP

What you need to know:

  • We seem to be years away from contemplating putting our sporting house in order.

  • In the meantime, let us not waste talent; let us export more athletes.

When Bahrain’s Ruth Jebet won the 3,000m steeplechase Olympic gold medal on Monday, beating World Champion Hyvin Kiyeng to silver, there was a hue and cry on social media in Kenya. The whiners complained that Jebet, “the former Kenyan”, had denied the country the gold.

I find that argument shallow and superfluous.

Granted, the management of sports in Kenya leaves lot to be desired. Priorities are more often than not misplaced. How can you explain coaches missing air tickets and accommodation at the Rio Olympics yet we know that some officials have their mistresses accompanying the team and that their welfare is better taken care of than that of the athletes and the coaches.

No wonder athletics team manager Michael Rotich was expelled from the event after bribery allegations surfaced. Then athletics coach John Anzra was sent home because he used an athlete’s pass to gain access to basic amenities at the Olympic Village as his own had not been processed.

But connecting the chronic mismanagement of sports in the country with the reality that many of our sportsmen and women have now changed their citizenship and are now representing other countries is indeed naive.

If the two are connected, then maybe we should encourage the mismanagement, for it is a good thing to have as many of our compatriots as possible playing for and getting paid by other countries. Reports indicate that there are more than 30 “Kenyans” competing at Rio for other countries.

From Jebet and newly crowned Olympic marathon silver medallist Eunice Kirwa of Bahrain, Mike Kigen of Turkey, USA’s former 5,000m world champion Bernard Lagat, and marathoner Lonah Chemtai of Israel, Kenya is well represented on the world athletics stage.

BY BAHRAIN

For her gold in Rio, Jebet will be paid Sh52 million by Bahrain. This is in addition to the oil-rich state paying for her education and a monthly stipend in excess of $1,000 (Sh101,500). Jebet, like her fellow athletes who have switched to Bahrain, will continue living in Kenya and only pass through Manama, Bahrain, in transit to competitions in Europe and America.

Contrary to the misplaced narrative that this is unpatriotic or a protest against poor sports management in the country, it is actually a positive move that well-meaning Kenyans should encourage.

Unlike specialised skilled resources such as medicine, teaching, and engineering that we should endeavour to protect from brain drain, sportsmanship is different and should be exported to any country willing to pay well.

Kenyans’ sportsmanship and our talented sports people are assets from whom we gain more when exported than domesticated.

Why is it, for instance, fashionable to celebrate Kenyan footballers playing for the big Western leagues and demonise athletes running for Bahrain or Qatar?

Don’t these athletes spend most of their time in Kenya? They spend most of the dollars they get paid for running for their adopted countries in Kenya. All of them have their extended families, which they support financially, in Kenya.

In fact, former champion Lornah Kiplagat, with her Dutch husband, runs the most efficient sports training facility in the country, in Iten. I bet the “former Kenyans” will be on the first flight to Eldoret once the Olympics are over with their full wallets, ready to spend their money in the country.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is exploring tightening the rules allowing athletes to switch nationalities. However, until this is done, just know that the IAAF allowed 85 athletes to compete for new countries at the Rio Games, and 30 were originally Kenyan.

As we wallow in the miasma of our imagined patriotism over the athletes running on the passports of other countries, let us ask ourselves whether we would rather have them axed from the Olympics due to the limited slots available for Kenya or have them dominate the competitions and bring much-needed foreign exchange home.

The mismanagement at the Sports Ministry, the National Olympics Committee of Kenya, Athletics Kenya, and other sports federations is to blame for the misplaced priorities that have left Team Kenya at Rio in shambles.

Why shouldn’t some Kenyans take the second option, which in this case is the best for them and the rest of us? We seem to be years away from contemplating putting our sporting house in order. In the meantime, let us not waste talent; let us export more athletes.

 

Michael Mugwang’a is a communication consultant based in Nairobi; [email protected]