Fighting chance: German-Kenyan fencer Alexandra Ndolo

Alexandra Ndolo has got a lot going on. The 36-year-old fencer has only just got back from the World Cup in China, but there's little time to rest. In a few days' time, she'll be back on the road again. Destination: Kenya. And it's no normal journey.

"Kenya is the country of my father and half of my family lives there," she explains. But this trip to Nairobi is more than just a family visit; Ndolo has important appointments with the Kenyan Fencing Federation, which she herself helped set up several years ago.

Since then, she's regularly been back and forth to the East African country, her luggage often packed full of fencing equipment which she gathers from donations in Germany, in order to help grow the sport in Kenya.

From Germany to Kenya

And her work is paying off. The first fencing schools have opened in Nairobi and some athletes have even received scholarships to do coaching courses in South Africa. "I'm very proud of what I've been able to achieve in Kenya so far," she beams, talking to DW.

Since 2020, Kenya has been an official member association of the World Fencing Federation (FIE) and was represented for the first time at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo by Isaac Wanyoike.

"That was the first time the Kenyan flag had been flown at such a big event," recalls Ndolo. "That was a very emotional moment for me."

The tournament in the Egyptian capital was also the climax of Ndolo's own sporting career so far as she won silver, trumping the bronze medal she won in 2019 and the second place at the European Championships two years earlier.

A few weeks later, she arrived in Kenya to a hero's welcome. "The people there were so happy for me and [said] 'you are one of us!'"

Back in Germany, she turned her back on the German Fencing Federation (DFB) and decided in future to compete for Kenya instead, the country of her father. Having grown up in Germany, she didn't take the decision lightly. "But I can accomplish so much in Kenya, and that decided it for me."

National pressure

The gravity of her decision only really dawned on her later when she competed for Kenya for the first time at the World Cup in Tallinn, Estonia, in November last year.

"I had prepared myself mentally in advance with my sports psychologist," she recalls. "Or so I thought. But then I was there on my own, wearing the Kenyan colors for the first time, seeing the Kenyan flag in the hall, and I thought: 'OK, this is all a bit much!'"

When she was announced as a Kenyan athlete for the first time, the usually highly focussed fencer suddenly felt emotional. "I had a huge lump in my throat," she says.

A financial risk

Ndolo's switch has not only had an emotional effect, but financial consequences, too.

In Germany, she had joined the armed forces and received financial backing through the Bundeswehr's sports development program. 

"Of course it was a risk, because I fell out of the German sports sponsorship programme", she admits. But Ndolo is predominantly driven by her goal of strengthening grassroots fencing in Kenya.

"The top athletes often receive funding, either from the state or the private sector. But there's not much left over for the youngsters, and that's not sustainable," explains Ndolo. "So I want to create a system which enables us to work with children and support them."

The future of fencing in Kenya

Ndolo has set herself big goals for the future. From a sporting point of view, she wants to secure qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Having not made it for Germany, she's hoping to succeed for Kenya.

"I don't know whether I could end my career in peace having not been to the Olympics," she says. "It would be something special because it would also have a huge symbolic effect. Sub-Saharan Africa has already had a few Olympic fencers, but none of them were particularly successful."

By competing for Kenya, Ndola, who has a Kenyan father and a Polish mother, wants to change that and cast African fencing in a more positive light.

"I want young people to believe in themselves and say, 'I like that sport, and you've succeeded in it, so I believe I can, too'."

Ndolo is certain that she won't be the last Kenyan Olympic fencer. "If, in 30 years' time, people recognize fencing in Kenya as an established sport, then that will be enough for me."

This article was originally written in Germanand translated by Matt Ford.