Team Kenya For Deaflympics set for Workshop On Mental Health, Media Relations

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 6 – Team Kenya that will represent the country at the Summer Deaflympic in Brazil will benefit from a two-day workshop focusing on media relations and mental health.

The team that reported residential camp at Kasarani Stadium, April 1 for 23 days before departure will on Thursday be taken through Media Relations training by senior sports editors on how to respond to interviews, how to represent themselves before the camera and how they can improve their relationships with sports journalists.

The second day on Friday, the athletes will be taken through on how to deal with mental health.

“Besides training for the competitions, the team will be taken through media relations sessions tomorrow, 7th April, 2022 to prepare them for media interviews even as we seek to hone their in-field and off-field skills,” Sports CS Amina said in a statement.

“Additionally, in recognition of how widespread mental illness within the athletics fraternity, we have organised a session on mental health awareness, in partnership with Chiromo Hospital Group, for the athletes and team officials, to be held this Friday, 8th April, 2022,” the CS added.

Kenya will field athletes in five disciplines namely; Athletics (Men and Women), Football (Women), Basketball (Men and Women), Handball (Men and Women) and Golf (Men).

The team will be in the training camp for a duration of 23 days, after which a team of 136 athletes will be selected to fly the Kenyan flag at the competitions that will be held in Caxias Do Sul, Brazil, from May 1-15.

-24th Summer Deaflympics 2021 competition dates-

Athletics          –               May 7th -15th 

Football          –               April 30th – May 15th 

Handball         –               May 2nd -14th 

Basketball –       May 3rd -14th 

Golf                 –               May 7th -13th 

-Kenya at the Deaflympics-

Kenya first took part in the Summer Deaflympics in 1997 in Copenhagen Denmark. Since then, Kenya has bagged a total of 38 medals; 12 Gold, 10 Silver, 16 Bronze.

In the last edition in 2017 in Samsun, Turkey, Kenya was ranked 9th overall and 1st in Africa out of 97 nations with a total of 13 medals; 4 Gold, 4 Silver, 6 Bronze. All the medals were won in athletics with clean sweeps in the men’s 5,000 and 10,000 metres.

-About Deaflympics-

The Deaflympics is an international multi-sport event, organized by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD – International Committee of Sports for the Deaf).

The first edition, held in Paris in 1924, was also the first sporting event for people with special needs.

The Summer Deaflympics takes place every 4 years and is the oldest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.

For the 24th summer edition in Caxias Do Sul, 4,500 deaf athletes and teams from over 100 countries are expected to participate.

Brazil will be the First Country in Latin America to host the Summer Deaflympic Games.