Kenya left relying on athletics for Olympics medals again as all other disciplines disappoint in Paris

Kenya’s tradition of relying on athletics for medals at the Olympics continues at the Paris 2024 Games with track and field stars the only ones left at the Games after the first week.

Besides athletics, Kenya had rugby sevens, women’s volleyball teams at the Olympics as well as two swimmers, as many judokas and swimmers, with one fencer.

However, by Saturday, all hopes for a medal remained in athletics, extending the tradition that has been witnessed since the 1988 Seal Games when Robert Wangila and Chris Sande won gold and bronze respectively in boxing.

Kenya's Malkia Strikers finished rock bottom of Pool B of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a three-set loss to Japan.

Kenya Sevens were the first to exit the competition following three straight losses at the group stage to end up ninth before fencer Alexandra Ndolo was also eliminated at the first round.

German-born Ndolo bowed out after a 13-12 loss to Ukrainian Olena Kryvystka in the women’s Individual Epee which attracted sudden death after a 12-12 tie.

Following them on the early flight home was swimmer Abubakar Ridhwan Mohammed who finished fourth in his heat in the 400m freestyle.

Kenyan judoka Zeddy Cherotich exited the Paris 2024 Olympics after just 20 seconds following a disappointing loss to her Portuguese opponent in the round of 32.

On Thursday, judoka Zeddy Cherotich lasted just 20 seconds against Portuguese Patricia Sampaio in the round of 32 of the women’s -78k category.

Cherotich had barely touched her opponent before she was sent crushing from her first Olympics Games.

The trend continued on Saturday when swimmer Maria Brunlehner finished third in her heat but missed out on a place in the semi-final.

Shujaa have finished ninth at the Paris 2024 Olympics with a 10-5 win over Samoa.

Brunlehner took part in the women’s 50m freestyle event where she clocked 25.82 seconds for third place in the seventh heat but with 27 others with better times than hers, it was the end of the road for the 24-year-old.

Malkia Strikers would close the bad day for Team Kenya with a third straight group stage loss following a 3-0 defeat to Japan.

Kenya lost by straight sets of 25-17, 25-22, and 25-14 to the Japanese, continuing a trend that had started with similar losses to Brazil and Poland.

Kenyan swimmer Maria Brunlehner finished third in her heat at the Paris Olympics but it was not enough to secure her ticket to the semi-final of the women’s 50m freestyle.

It was their fourth Olympics and second in a row but they are yet to win a set in each of the four appearances at the Games.

The field is now left to athletics stars to save face for Kenya as the country goes back to the drawing board in search of a strategy of winning medals in other sports besides track and field.