Sport in Kenya

Sport is an important element of Kenyan culture. Various indigenous traditional sports have prevailed in Kenyan culture from its earliest history. Some of the traditional games and sports prevalent in Kenya since antiquity have included wrestling, racing exercises, stick fights, hunting (using spears and arrows), board games, bull fights and dances.

Most modern sports in Kenya started during British colonisation. Professional teams in form of clubs were organised by colonial British settlers and Asian contractors as early as 1922, before the establishment of formal schools. Sports were introduced in schools in 1925. The syllabus for teaching sport through physical training in schools (extracurricular activity) was produced in 1935. Football and athletics (track and field) respectively were the first sports to be professionally organized.

Today, many sports are popular in Kenya, played both professionally and as recreational physical activities. The most popular sport in Kenya is football. Sports played in Kenya today include athletics (track & field and other running events), cricket, field hockey, motor sports, Association football, rugby union, volleyball, basketball, swimming and diving, team handball, netball, rounders, baseball, shooting, softball, bicycling, martial arts (boxing, Shotokan karate, Goju Ryu karate, Shorin Ryu karate, kickboxing, judo, Mantis kenPo and taekwondo), Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, Squash, Badminton, Golf, Canoeing, Chess, Goal Ball, Horse Riding/Equestrianism, Polo, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Archery, Roller Sports, Ice Hockey and Mountain Sports – Kenya.

Globally, Kenya is mainly known for its dominance in middle-distance and long-distance races.

Athletics (track and field) was one of the two modern sports (together with football) to be formally organized in Kenya. Kenya has regularly produced Olympic and Commonwealth Games champions in various distance events, especially in 800 m, 1,500 m, 3,000 m steeplechase, 5,000 m, 10,000 m and the marathons. Kenyan athletes (particularly Kalenjin) continue to dominate the world of distance running, although competition from Morocco and Ethiopia has reduced this supremacy. Kenya's best-known athletes included the four-time women's Boston Marathon winner and two-time world champion Catherine Ndereba, former Marathon world record-holder Paul Tergat, and John Ngugi. The question of why Kenyans are so dominant in distance running has given rise to various explanations involving topography, or bone structure, or diet.

Retired Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion Kipchoge Keino helped usher in Kenya's ongoing distance dynasty 1970s and was followed by Commonwealth Champion Henry Rono's string of world record performances.

Kenya won several medals during the Beijing Olympics, 6 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze, making it Africa's most successful Nation in the 2008 Olympics. New athletes gained attention, such as Pamela Jelimo, the women's 800m gold medalist who went ahead to win the Golden League jackpot, and Samuel Wanjiru who won the men's marathon.

Julius Yego became the first Kenyan field athlete to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games when he won the javelin title at the 2014 event in Glasgow (fellow Kenyan John Makaya had taken a bronze in the same event forty years earlier at the 1974 Commonwealths in Christchurch). The following year he took Kenya's first World Championship gold in the field at the 2015 World Championships in Athletics in Beijing, where he set a new Commonwealth record of 92.72m on his way to victory.