Kenya’s Boit overjoyed to pass torch to Simader

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Philip Boit, previously Kenya’s only Winter Olympic athlete, hopes the African nation may yet have a future at the Games after countrywoman Sabrina Simader’s debut in Alpine skiing in Pyeongchang.

Boit, 46, is serving as the chef de mission for a team that previously only consisted of himself after he transitioned from middle distance running to cross-country skiing thanks to a Nike-sponsored program in the mid-1990s.

He competed at the 1998 Games in Nagano amid a media frenzy and returned for two more Games before retiring in 2011 with concerns that Kenya may never field another Winter Olympic athlete.

But that changed when the 19-year-old Simader fulfilled a lifelong dream and qualified for Pyeongchang.

”I am the happiest guy in this whole Olympics,“ Boit told reporters on Saturday. ”I thought Kenya at the Winter Olympics might die out after me.