Why so much hate for Kenya?

I think in general because they are very good at all distance events and it's jealousy. I think that there have been many cases of age cheats from east Africa so it's easy for someone to unfairly call and junior an age cheat. Kenyans in general seem more stoic and less jovial than Ehtiopians and that doesn't help them either. Me, I don't care about any of that stuff. I love Kenyan runners. I loved Sammy Wanjiru and I think Kirpop is aweseome and I think guys like Eliud Kipchoge are totally overlooked. All those jerks talking sh*t should just be quiet. Don't be offended, it's the American way to hate who's best and talk poorly about them.

Hate due to envy is a compliment in America.

Perhaps the evidence that Kenya is one of the most corrupt places on earth leads many to believe it is highly likely they cheat in various ways. The naive are quite happy to buy the usual waffle about 'genetic marvels' living at altitude eating ughali and having to escape poverty blah blah blah....

fsdjhc wrote:

Hate due to envy is a compliment in America.

Galen Rupp, the world leader says "Kenya who?"

someotherguy wrote:

fsdjhc wrote:

Hate due to envy is a compliment in America.

Galen Rupp, the world leader says "Kenya who?"

Yenew Alameriw: "Galen WHUTT?"

To be fair, the real issue at this time of year (its not limited to Kenya as Ethiopia is far worse than they are) is the age cheating scandals that go on during the world juniors. Did any of you guys believe the 2:04 guy was actually under 20? During the WJC's and WYC's, the is part of the reason why East Africa gets a bit of ridicule on the boards.

It's just locker room banter and a few who can't resist lobbing the odd hand grenade. There are obviously some Kenyans everyone is fond of (Rudisha) but also some who raise eyebrows.

A dislike for unfairness, esp not following rules that we do follow, is a trait nearly all Americans posess and the suspect age thing rubs many the wrong way.

David Rudisha is a god and a gift to running history, and I love to watch Sum and Obirir, but sending what appear to be men to compete as junior "girls" and the above-mentioned 2:04 "boy", along with Lagat's squirreley shenanigans of the past has cast aspersion on the credibility of the current generation of Kenyanos.

Neither the forums nor the coverage by Letsrun, imo, reflect a particular anti-Kenyan bias. Kenya is an extremely important nation for distance running. Some of these topics revolve around matters with strains of truth--age cheating, gender issues, doping, bureaucracy, corruption, financial motivation, etc.. The prevalency is subject to discussion, but certainly discussion itself is fair game. In this modern digital age, there is also a lot of information flowing in on these topics. A lot of Letsrun's audience, in various locales around the world, also seem to identify with some of the topics as they register a universal chord (bureaucracy, doping, corruption, financial aspects of running pursuits, etc.)

I wouldn't worry that much nor take it so personally.

I'm not really aware of any widespread hatred for Kenya. Speaking for myself but probably NOT just for myself, David Rudisha is the track athlete I admire most, for his talent and heart but also his dignity. Sally Kipyego is also very well-liked and admired in the gold old US of A

Deep-fried Quadriceps wrote:

David Rudisha is a god and a gift to running history, and I love to watch Sum and Obirir, but sending what appear to be men to compete as junior "girls" and the above-mentioned 2:04 "boy", along with Lagat's squirreley shenanigans of the past has cast aspersion on the credibility of the current generation of Kenyanos.

I haven't heard about this 2:04 "Junior" runner, but regardless of what the consensus is about moving to the marathon early and the tremendous talent pool in Kenya, 2:04 for a junior is extremely auspicious, conspicuous, u name it. Maybe they moved up too late and are over the hill, but as an example, since someone mentioned Eluid Kipchoge--he and Kenenisa Bekele, who, by the way, were phenoms from a conspicuously young age--had tremendous success in their marathon debuts (at their old age now), at least, those 2:05 numbers have ME in awe. I assume the 2:04 "junior" is dropping down in distance for these junior world champs?

The OP is taking things out of perspective. The good and bad all exists. I would hazard a guess that many on the board do respect the culture and ethos of stoicism, grassroots hard work, tremendous pools of talent among the anecdotes of Kenyan athletes, who were inspired by the success of their fellow compatriots, regional peers or an agent/coach/training group, etc.

Discussions of the shortcomings of Athletics Kenya can also be seen as a compliment to the tremendous talent in Kenya, which suffers from the constraints of team selections in times of championship games and from any mismanagement and bureaucratic incompetency.

Regular Letsrun visitors will notice that Kenya is not the only country with bureaucracies relating to running that have been criticized--and certainly not the only Sub-Saharan African country, neither (see the case of Uganda).

The main thing is, there's all these Kenyans on the track and nobody can figure out where they're from.

It is actually telling of Kenya's position that a running board based in the U.S. is so detailed in it's analysis and coverage (and attendant criticism) of a third-world running mecca.

Ethiopia would get much more attention (pos and neg) if it weren't such a closed system of development. Kenya is much more like the U.S. in this regard.

RunWild wrote:

Did any of you guys believe the 2:04 guy was actually under 20?

If you are talking about the guy who won Dubai this year, he is an Ethiopian...

...''So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, `He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world." They said to him, "Lord, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst..''

It is hate for superior black athletes, let's be honest.

Not sure if you live in the US or not, but there is a particular level of resentment and racism that goes into hating Kenyan runners in the US.

It goes something like this:

They come here and win all our races and take all our money.

They don't seem to have to work as hard as we do so winning is easy for them.

How do people from the middle of Africa get to be so good, when we have all the science and tech behind running covered..so they must be on drugs.

They don't need much to live on in Kenya so winning any bit helps, so their incentives are bigger than ours.

We cant keep up with them at any age, so they cheat when they claim to be 18. They stop aging quickly after that apparently, and its too embarrassing to then say their top runners should be in their mid 40s.

They are dull and boring to talk to, yet we would never have a Swahili interpreter around after any race.

We obsess about our diets, yet they seem to eat almost anything they want and still win.

Have I left any reasons out?

This is very interesting, if true. Still puzzled as to why Ethiopia doesn't get the same attention, though; no one is trolling their media for nuggets to post on the homepage.

I, for one, also find these boards to be incredibly negative sometimes, and yes, occasionally the main page.

Interesting to hear that a (presumably) Kenyan female introduced you to LR. I also find this message board to be incredibly sexist (at times), so there are also very few females on here, or at least few that identify themselves as such.

I personally would love it if more females and more non-Americans posted on here. I find Kenya's dominance in running to be very inspiring, and agree that most people on here are just giving Kenyans a hard time for kicking American ass, but I imagine it'd annoy me a lot if I was Kenyan.

El Keniano wrote:

This is very interesting, if true. Still puzzled as to why Ethiopia doesn't get the same attention, though; no one is trolling their media for nuggets to post on the homepage.

Thats simple. Most Americans don't know the difference between a Kenyan and an Ethiopian, neither by looks or by names (and certainly have no clue about Tanzanian, Ugandan or Eritrean runners). And for a long while Ethiopians were not commonly seen in US races, therefore to most Americans the easy targets are Kenyans!