Kenya topped Africa’s Olympics medal table – but a new strategy will be needed to keep winning

Kenya topped Africa’s medal tally at the 2024 Paris Olympics, as the east African country did at the last two games in 2020 and 2016. Kenya is a dominant force particularly because of the success of its middle-distance and long-distance runners. However, these games also revealed issues and developments that need to be debated in order to inform preparations for the next games in Los Angeles in 2028. These include the rise of women runners, fewer returns on men’s distance events and a need to diversify at a development level to meet the growing competitiveness from rival nations. Kenya came in at 17th place on the medals table (winning four gold, two silver and five bronze). The nearest African countries were Algeria in 39th (two gold and one bronze) and South Africa in 44th (one gold, three silver and two bronze). Kenya ranked second behind the US in track and field events. But, while Kenya performed better in Paris than in Tokyo in 2020 (where they placed 19th with ten medals) they also performed worse than in Rio in 2016 (finishing 15th with 13 medals). And the medals race is becoming increasingly competitive. Out of 203 countries and one Refugee...