Kenya at the London 2012 Olympics

Kenya's most successful Olympics, without a doubt, were the Beijing Olympics in 2008. In those games, Kenya left with 14 medals. 6 of them Gold! Prior to those games, our most successful Gold haul was in the Seoul Olympics in 1988. We left those games with 5 gold medals, and an overall total of 9 medals.

London has been a low point. And it's only a low point because we're coming off the Beijing high. In fact, the London Olympics may turn out to be the second most successful Olympics in total medal count. We won't get 5 gold medals, but we may end up with more than 9 medals in total, the most medals we've ever achieved not counting the Beijing Olympics.

And I guess this is why Kenyan's, including the Kenyan media, are being so tough on our athletes. In fact the international media is also critical, referring to Kenyan athletes as "struggling." As I write this, there's one more day of competition left in London. The final event that Kenyans will compete in is the men's marathon. And this race illustrates Kenya's failure to be competitive on the Olympic stage.

Up until Beijing, Kenya had never won a gold in the men's marathon. This despite the fact that Kenyans win most of the world city major marathons. London, Berlin, New York, Boston, Chicago, L.A., Frankfurt, Rotterdam, you name it. Kenyans are there, and they win. The current world record holder in the marathon is a Kenyan, Patrick Makau, and Kenyans have held the world record more than once. It was snatched by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselasie for a period. The fastest ever marathon run was achieved by a Kenyan, Geoffrey Mutai, when he ran a 2:03:02 in Boston. Boston, unfortunately, isn't a world record course and so even though Geoffrey Mutai's time was faster than Patrick Makau's world record setting time in Berlin, he wasn't granted the world record.

Kenyan's continue to shine in the middle distances too. In Beijing, Kenya received medals in the 800m, 1500m, 5000m and 10000m races. Gold in the 800m and 1500m.

So Beijing stands uniquely as a tremendously successful Olympics for Kenya. And its from that perspective that London is being judged. Because, up until Beijing, Kenya's most successful medal haul has been a total of 9 medals. That's it. And today, the day before the last day of the competition, Kenya stands at 9 medals. We've matched our second highest tally of medals. Should we get a single medal in the men's marathon tomorrow, then London would be the second most successful Olympics, in terms of medal count. Indeed, in terms of gold medals, the London Olympics would count as an average, or normal, gold medal count.

Yet, we all feel that this could have been different. The marathon ladies were supposed to bring in more medals, especially since they won all three medals in the world championships the year before. Priscah Jeptoo managed a silver medal in the women's marathon in London. Also in the 800m, former Olympic gold medallist, Pamela Jelimo was supposed to medal. She came in fourth. On the men's side, things weren't that great either. Kenya was shut out of the 10000m and we managed a bronze medal in the 5000m. We were completely shut out of the 1500m, an event that we've done so well in and in which we hold the Olympic record. We continue to do well in the steeplechase, winning gold and bronze in that event.

So, all in all, we shouldn't be surprised. This is a typical Kenyan Olympic showing and perhaps we should consider Beijing to be a blip, an anomaly, in how we've normally performed at the games.