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Kenya: Our Sporting Icons Yet to Exploit Their Economic Potential
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The Nation (Nairobi)
OPINION
20 October 2007
Posted to the web 22 October 2007
Martin Keino | Trackside
Nairobi
The track and field season is over, and it is time to reflect on which athletes made the biggest impact on us.
Certainly, Kenyan athletes' performances this year have made many fans, and non-fans alike, pay attention. We now have a new set of heroes, but who has the potential amongst this new crop of athletes to rise to iconic status?
What does it mean to be an icon? It means global stardom, instant name recognition, cutting across gender, economic lines and moving beyond the narrow confines of a particular sport or individual geographical territories.
Being an icon in the sporting world means belonging in a very select group of people. With Kenya's remarkable history of producing the world's best athletes, we have very few icons. What separates sporting icons from mere celebrities is real, solid and repeated achievements.
Paul Tergat is it, Tegla Loroupe was it, Catherine Ndereba has it and Kipchoge Keino had it. These four names have worldwide appeal and name recognition based on their performances and personalities.
As young athletes look to their adored sports icons for direction and acceptance in a fast-paced and demanding world, they develop habits, behaviours, and attitudes that reflect those sports icons, their heroes.
It is difficult to come up with a combination of a story, ability and charisma, as those are the key ingredients that make up an icon. The life cycle of the celebrity sports person is increasingly getting shorter. However, what makes the icon's brand stand out more in this modern age is that it must embrace a broader social responsibility message.
Moreover, our local icons have taken steps in that direction, too, with Kip Keino with an orphanage, Tergat with his foundation, and Loroupe with her Peace Run. All embody the ideal of giving back to the community.
The newest Kenyan running sensation is Janeth Jepkosgei, affectionately known as "Eldoret Express." Her rise to the top of women's middle distance running has been nothing short of remarkable.
Learning
Along the way, she is slowly creating her own brand and her popularity is growing with a passionate following of fans and sponsors.
Of course, Jepkosgei has lots more winning to do, and even more off-field activities to engage in, but she can learn from these other icons on what it takes to rise to that level.
Nevertheless, I feel that our icons and sporting heroes still have not fully exploited their commercial value with this sort of fame.
As it is a new concept, the local marketplace has not fully realised what power and clout these stars have in marketing their products to the populace. Granted, marketers tend to be very conservative in how they invest their shillings. They have to be reassured it is a true trend.
I foresee the first few endorsers latching onto the idea reaping maximum benefits by associating these icons with their products and aiding many other sports stars cross over to the mainstream.
Sadly, the model that seems to hold back our Kenyan icons is the reverse of what is happening in the rest of the world. Our stars are more famous "outside of Kenya" than in it.
Perhaps the driving force behind this is the perceived lack of a cross-over sports star that appeals across different age groups and to other areas that are not necessarily related, which is where the big money exists.
In our local marketplace, musicians have that influence, yet they are nowhere near achieving global iconic status. I hope that will change with increased visibility of our sports stars with more endorsements and promotions.
Either way, it raises a few questions on how we should package our talent in today's sports market place.
Granted, Kenya has not reached the level of first world sporting nations, where the culture of hero worship, autograph signings, image rights and licensing fees are now entrenched.
But it is refreshing, for example, how Lorupe's iconic status is not just about economic fetishism that marks the celebrity stature of most sporting stars of Western capitalist countries.
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With athletics being at the very centre of the multi-million dollar sport industry, a careful construction of an icon's image is important.
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