Eliud Kipchoge

Eliud Kipchoge was born on 5 November 1984 in Kapsisiywa, Nandi County, Kenya. He graduated from Kaptel Secondary School in 1999 but did not take up serious running at that time, though he ran three kilometers to school each day. Raised by a single mother who worked as a teacher, he only knew his father from photographs. He is the youngest of four children. At age 16, in 2001, he met his trainer Patrick Sang, a former Olympic steeplechase medalist. Kipchoge is a devout Catholic. He lives and trains in Kaptagat, about 30 kilometers from Eldoret, where his wife and three children reside. After Kelvin Kiptum’s death in 2024, Kipchoge and his family received online threats falsely accusing him of involvement, which affected his training and well-being.

Kipchoge began his career in track. In 2002, he won the Kenyan trials for the junior race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he placed fifth individually and helped Kenya’s junior team win gold. He also won the 5000-meter Kenyan trial for the 2002 World Junior Championships but fell ill and missed the event. In 2003, he won the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships. That same year, at the Bislett Games, he set a world junior record in the 5000 meters with a time of 12:52.61, a mark that stood until 2012. At the 2003 World Championships in Paris, he won gold in the 5000 meters, outsprinting Hicham El Guerrouj by four-hundredths of a second in 12:52.79. In July 2004, at the Golden League Roma Meeting, he ran 12:46.53 in the 5000 meters, making him the sixth-fastest ever at that distance. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, he earned a bronze medal in the 5000 meters, finishing behind El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele. He also won the Trofeo Alasport cross country race earlier that season.

In 2006, Kipchoge took bronze in the 3000 meters indoors at the World Championships in Moscow. Later that year, he won the San Silvestre Vallecana New Year’s Eve 10-kilometer road race in 26:54, beating his own course record by 40 seconds; the time was faster than the 10K road world record but was run on a downhill course. At the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, he won silver in the 5000 meters in 13:46.00, behind Bernard Lagat. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he again won silver in the 5000 meters with a time of 13:02.80, which beat the previous Olympic record but was not enough to match Kenenisa Bekele’s gold-medal pace. That year, he also won the Great Yorkshire Run 10K and Campaccio Cross Country. He did not reach the podium at the 2009 World Championships.

Kipchoge switched to road running in 2012. His half-marathon debut was the second-fastest ever at 59:25. In his marathon debut, he won the 2013 Hamburg Marathon in a course-record time. His first World Marathon Major victory came at the 2014 Chicago Marathon. He went on to become the series champion a record five times (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022). He has won the London Marathon a record four times and holds the record for most Berlin Marathon wins with five, his latest in September 2023. In his first 18 marathons from 2013 to 2023, he won 15. His losses were a second-place finish behind Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich at the 2013 Berlin Marathon (where Kipsang broke the world record), an eighth-place finish at the 2020 London Marathon, and a sixth-place finish in his debut at the 2023 Boston Marathon. Since 2024, he has lost his last three marathons. Kipchoge’s final world record run broke his own 2018 record by 30 seconds; that 2018 record had been a 78-second improvement over the previous best, the largest leap in marathon world record time since 1967.

On 12 October 2019, as part of the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, Kipchoge ran the marathon distance in 1:59:40.2, becoming the first person in recorded history to complete a sub-two-hour marathon. This run did not count as an official world record because he used specialized shoes, standard pacing and fluid rules were not followed, and the event was not open. On 20 October 2019, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Kipchoge an Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart in recognition of the sub-two-hour marathon. He was also named the 2019 BBC World Sport Star of the Year. In 2023, he received the Princess of Asturias Award in the “Sports” category.

Kipchoge is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion. He held the marathon world record from 2018 until 2023, when Kelvin Kiptum broke it at the Chicago Marathon. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time.