Olympic Colours

This somwhat racist article, in Salon magazine, points out that Kenya throws million of shillings at a sport we are ‘terrible at’[soccer]and that we should instead concentrate on sports where we clearly excel [athletics] - We’re so good at athletics, that we are even exporting athletes for dollars

No amount of political correctness can obscure the reality that a large part of Kenyans' mediocre record in soccer and sprinting comes down to genetics: They just don't have the body or physiology for those sports. They are ectomorphs, short and slender, with huge natural lung capacity and a preponderance of slow twitch muscles, the energy system for endurance sports. It's a perfect biomechanical package for distance running, but a disaster for sports that require anaerobic bursts of speed -- like sprinting and soccer.

Also, despite the relative success of the Harambee Stars, Kenya has effectively outsourced its soccer craze to the Premiership and other European leagues since satellite TV was established in Kenya. If Harambee Stars are playing the Africa Cup final against Tunisia, simultaneously with an Arsenal-Chelsea game, TV’s will be euqlly split between both games. Meanwhile Dennis Oliech plays his professional soccer in Doha, Qatar earning 640,000 shillings a month (and 60,000 allowance per week)