Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has urged Kenyan athletes who won medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to wisely invest the money they received after the competition.
Speaking on Thursday, August 15, at the Eldoret State Lodge where the athletes were awarded cash prizes, Gachagua said that he did not know that athletics came with money.
He asserted that it would be sad if the champions, having conquered the world on track events, found themselves in financial difficulties later in life.
"I want to tell our athletes that this sport comes with a bit of money. Please invest it well so that you can live a good life after you retire. I did not know that this running comes with some money. Please invest well so that the name that you carry is dignified through your life.
"It will be very sad that after you have been to the Olympics later on in life you are struggling and people are asking what happened; that is the man or woman we knew who was the champion in the whole world," Gachagua remarked.
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The second in command spoke even as athletes who won gold in the Olympic Games were awarded Sh3 million.
Their counterparts who won silver and bronze were awarded with Sh2 million and Sh1 million respectively.
The award is part of a scheme by the Ministry of Sports to compensate Kenyan athletes who triumph at world championships.
Speaking at the event, President Ruto maintained that the government's sports fund will benefit sportsmen and women.
"I have given firm instructions that the sports fund is for our sportsmen and women and to promote sports infrastructure," the president remarked.
