National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) have granted teams to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games set for 2024 in Paris, France.
Today, NOC-K presented Kshs 9 million collectively for the Malkia Strikers and 3×3 Basketball Ladies’ teams to help them qualify for the games.
The Olympic Solidarity grants to each of the women’s teams are intended to complement their preparations and qualification for the Paris 2024.
The NOC-K Elite Performance Commission, which oversees the athletes and teams on sponsorship selected the two teams based on recent performance in Birmingham for the Basketball team and Tokyo 2020 and World Championship for Malkia strikers.
NOCK Secretary General, Francis Mutuku disclosed that The Support Grant by Olympic Solidarity for Paris 2024 marked the second phase of preparations.
“We are delighted to be in the second phase of our preparations, the first phase was handing over scholarships to individual athletes, which we have through the ANOCA and IOC scholarships. We’ve moved to the teams and the two ladies’ teams selected by the Elite Commission will be fortunate enough to qualify for the Olympic Games.”
His sentiments echoed that of the National Olympic Committee’s President, Paul Tergat, who termed the grant particularly special because the two beneficiaries are Kenya’s women teams hence reinforcing the gender parity objective that the IOC advocates for with a target to see to it that the Paris 2024 will have a full gender parity on the field of play, having 50 percent of the quota places for women and the other 50 percent for men.
Beyond funding, the teams will receive technical expert support from the Elite performance team.
Malkia Strikers Team Captain, Mercy Moim expressed their elation at the prospect of having consistent preparations with the incoming support from OS, given previous challenges experienced due to funding gaps. “NOC-K has really come through for us, having sponsored us to the world championship and now receiving this news almost immediately, we are excited, and this funding will help us with early preparations”, noted Moim.
The 2-year USD 45000 each grant runs till qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024