#19 Olympics scorecard: East Africa, home of champions

Aug 27, 24

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Episode 19 Olympics scorecard – East Africa, home of champions

[00:00:00] Charlotte Beauvoisin: Hello, you’re listening to the East Africa Travel Podcast. My name’s Charlotte Beauvoisin, author of Diary of a Muzungu. Thanks for tuning in.

Today, we’re talking about the Olympics. Firstly, I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone who participated.

If you’ve been listening to the first episode of the podcast, you’ll remember I spoke to Rob Walker:

[00:00:32] Rob Walker: And what unadulterated joy this win will have triggered back home. In Uganda, one of the friendliest, most beautiful countries you could ever wish to visit!

[00:00:49] Charlotte Beauvoisin: Rob is a well-known sports commentator and he was one of the many journalists reporting from the Paris Olympics.

First of all, I’ve been having a look at the table and 12 African countries won medals. I don’t know how many countries participated.

[00:01:07] Charlotte Beauvoisin: At number 17 in the overall rankings was Kenya with 11 medals, all in athletics. Kenya came number one in Africa for athletics and second globally in athletics. Uganda came at 55 in the medals table with the gold and the silver, so we brought home two medals. I wanted to give a shout out to Peruth Chemutai, 22 year old Ugandan who won the silver medal in the 3000 metre steeplechase.

A little fact for you here, Chemutai was the first Ugandan woman to ever win an Olympic medal when she won the gold in Tokyo. Biggest congratulations to Joshua Cheptegai for winning gold in the 10,000 metres. Joshua is from Eastern Uganda and he’s won more Olympic medals than any other Ugandan athlete in history. He is the three time 10,000 metre world champion, and in Tokyo he won a silver for the 10,000 metres and a gold for the 5,000 metres. Another world champion who’s definitely worthy of a mention is Victor Kiplangat. He was Uganda’s best finisher at the Paris 2024 marathon. He came in 37th place.

It was an Ethiopian who took the gold medal. Congratulations to Tamirat Tola for the Paris 2024 Men’s Marathon.

So the 12 African countries who won medals were, in order, Kenya, Algeria, South Africa, Ethiopia, Egypt, Tunisia, Botswana, Uganda, Morocco, Côte d’Ivoire, Cabo Verde, and Zambia. (Poor old Zambia! Unfortunately, when your name begins with a Z, you end up at the bottom of the medal table). They were joint 84th with Côte d’Ivoire and Cabo Verde. Another interesting fact for you, eight countries were in joint 84th place.

I watched quite a lot of Olympics this year, and it was really amazing to see how Great Britain, the land of my birth, did in the medals. And we came seventh overall. When you listen to the athletes thanking their friends and family, the words National Lottery came up a lot.

And good for them, you know, I wouldn’t wish things otherwise, but it’s just a stark reminder of how we fund sports in Great Britain and Uganda doesn’t have any of that just makes me a bit sad, really, that we have so much talent in Uganda and I know many, many people who run and they’re just not getting the chance to represent their country.

It’s a reminder that the rankings don’t reflect the talent on the ground. The rankings reflect how much countries invest in their sportsmen and women. I just wish Ugandans and other Africans had those equal chances, because there should be far more than 12 African countries appearing in the list of medalists.

[00:04:20] Charlotte Beauvoisin: Moses Otiti is a Ugandan friend of ours who was at top of his game in a number of sports, including tennis. I think he was number two in Uganda at one point, and he was very disillusioned by the lack of support for the game. He got a place to play in an international tournament and there was no money to cover the cost of his flight.

[00:04:43] Charlotte Beauvoisin: Well, if there’s no money to cover the cost of his flight, then how was he supporting his coaching? And, you know, time and time again, you hear it’s friends and family and community who are coming together to support people, but how can you really excel when you’re having to worry about getting the money together and making other sacrifices?

And so when I look at the Ugandan athletes and the East African athletes, I’m particularly proud knowing the personal struggles that they’ll have gone through to get to the Olympics. We hear of similar stories where someone is feted when they come back to the country after having a win and the president of whichever country gives them a car or something. Well, the car’s great, but who’s going to pay for the fuel for the car? And also, don’t you need the money to coach and to pay your bills and so on? It’s all great to celebrate somebody when they achieve, but how are they actually going to manage to achieve in the first place? Unless you support them. When they’re nothing and no one.

[00:05:48] Charlotte Beauvoisin: I saw a similar sentiment from Wausi Walya, who is one of the directors at Kenya Tourism Board. She wrote:

“As a country, we need to support those who give their all for the nation. This has not always been the case in the past, yet they keep bringing home medals. Many athletes go on to become brand ambassadors for key Kenyan products and causes in conservation, tourism, manufactured goods, etc. Will there be better support on the sports front with the cabinet reset?”

Kenyans won 11 medals at the Olympic Games this year. Kenya’s government awarded $163,000 to their Olympic athletes. President William Ruto hosted the Olympic team and he said:

“Kenya’s pride in athletics does not end in the 11 medals that we won at the Olympic Games. Our potential remains immense and underexploited.”

Congratulations to all my Kenyan friends. I have a lot of Kenyan friends who I have run with. We have the famous Nairobi to Naivasha Relay, which is a weekend event. I’ve taken part in that. I’ve been running with Nairobi Hash House Harriers in Malindi. I’ve run all around Nairobi with them.

[00:07:09] Charlotte Beauvoisin: I’ve run with Addis Ababa Hash House Harriers. I have toured Ethiopia a couple of times with the Hash House Harriers. But looking at the various Olympic stories from Africa, the one that really touched me is from Botswana: Botswana won two medals this year, one gold and one silver. Letsile Tsebogo won the men’s 200 metres in the Stade de France in France. It was Africa’s first 200 metre title. He became the fifth fastest man in history over the distance. President Masisi of Botswana said:

“Letsile’s achievement was deserving of the nation to pause and celebrate him in a most unique, appropriate and responsible manner that will be etched in the annals of the history of the Republic.”

Masisi had posted that his voice was completely gone from shouting encouragement at the television as he watched Tebogo win in 19 minutes and 46 seconds. The president announced that there was going to be a public holiday. Yeah, everyone in Botswana got a half day public holiday, the day after the country’s win at the Olympics.

[00:08:26] Charlotte Beauvoisin: And there’s an absolutely joyous celebration in a national stadium that was filled with people singing and dancing and cheering for the whole team when they returned to Botswana from Paris. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Celebration of life and achievement.

Anyway, I really enjoyed watching the Olympics this year. And it was just wonderful to feel a small part of that, just watching it on TV.

And if you are a runner, or even a fast walker, we have a wide range of marathons and fun runs that you can take part in across East Africa. We have marathons, 42k, as we call them. We have the half marathon or the 21 km races. We have 10km. We have 5km.

One of my favorites is the Kyaninga marathon and triathlon in Uganda, fundraising for children with disabilities in fabulous countryside next to a luxury lodge, overlooking a lake. We have the Mount Rwenzori marathon in Kasese bordering Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.

There is the Great Ethiopian Run in Addis, Ethiopia. In Kenya, there’s a run through Lewa Conservancy. If you’re into running, and you don’t have to be a pro at all, but if you like running somewhere new with different groups of people, you can book a trip around a run. You can book a trip around high altitude training program, if that’s what floats your boat!

[00:10:02] Charlotte Beauvoisin: One of the reasons that East Africans excel in running is that we’re at high altitude. Kampala is at 1,000 metres. Sunbird Hill, Nature Monitoring and Rewilding Site, Kibale Forest is 1,300 m. And Mount Elgon is a volcanic caldera shared by Kenya and Uganda. And that’s where a lot of the top athletes train are born so there’s a very strong running culture there, training culture, very beautiful foothills and wild area of waterfalls and astonishing scenery. So if you like hiking or climbing or you fancy a spot of running with somebody like Joshua Cheptegei, there’s a high altitude training center up there. It’s also a bit cooler up in the mountains as well.

I haven’t been running for a little while, but researching this episode really made me want to start running again. I am usually the person right at the back, but hey, it’s about taking part, isn’t it?

Well, that’s it for this week.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode, you might want to listen to the conversation I had with Rob Walker. That’s episode four of the East Africa travel podcast. He talks about athletics and running, Joshua Cheptegai and everything Ugandan. If you’re planning a trip to East Africa and you want to hook up with some runners, send me a message or Google Hash House Harriers. The Hash, as we are affectionately known, meet and run all over the world. Kampala Hash House Harriers, Nairobi Hash House Harriers, Kigali, Addis Adaba, everywhere in between has a big group of social runners. Some are serious about training, and others are serious about socializing, but it’s a fantastic fraternity. And I’ve met some lifelong friends through being a Hasher.

If you’re inspired to run, there’s a fantastic book that I’m going to buy this week called “Running with the Kenyans.” I have to read it. The author is Adharanand Finn.

[00:12:11] Charlotte Beauvoisin: I hope I pronounced that correctly, but look it up: Running with the Kenyans. It’s based on a true story of him training with them, but really trying to understand what it is about the Kenyans that makes them such fantastic runners.

Congratulations again to everybody who’s taken part in the Olympics and a particular shout out to the Kenyans who brought more medals home than any other African nation.

You’ve been listening to the East Africa Travel Podcast, hosted by me, Charlotte Beauvoisin. Thanks for listening. See you next week.

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