Running legend victim of conspiracy theory after competitor’s death: ‘They want to burn my house down’

Running legend victim of conspiracy theory after competitor’s death: ‘They want to burn my house down’ | Other sports

Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge has had major concerns about the safety of his family. The two-time Olympic champion said this in an interview on BBC Sport Africa. He received numerous threats online from people claiming he was involved in a conspiracy to kill Kelvin Kiptum.

“I was shocked that people on social media platforms said: Eliud is involved in the death of this boy,” Kipchoge, 39, said. “This was the worst news ever in my life.”

Kiptum died in February in a single-vehicle car accident. He was 24 years old and was considered the greatest talent in the marathon. In Chicago in the autumn of 2023, he set the world record for the marathon at 2:00:35. In the years before that, Kipchoge was the record holder.

“I received very nasty messages,” said Kipchoge, who will go for his third gold in a row at the Paris Olympics this summer. “They want to burn down my training camp, my house, my belongings, my family. It didn’t happen, but it is how the world works. My biggest concern was the safety of my family, that something would happen to my children.”

It was intense for my sons to hear: ‘Your father killed someone’
Eliud Kipchoge

“I was very afraid to let my children go to school. Sometimes they cycle, but we stopped that because you never know what can happen. We dropped them off and picked them up again in the evening. My daughter goes to a boarding school where fortunately no one has access to social media. It was intense for my sons to hear: ‘Your father killed someone.’

Lost friends

Kipchoge did not allow himself to be restrained by the hate campaign. “My life takes place outdoors. I just run through the streets here. It was painful to experience that even many of my friends spoke badly about me. That touched me. I’ve lost 90 percent of my friends.”

The running legend’s form suffered, he said. He finished tenth in the Tokyo Marathon in March, two and a half minutes behind winner Benson Kipruto. It was his worst result since 2013. “In Tokyo I couldn’t sleep for three days because of the worries.”

Kipchoge won the Berlin Marathon five times in his career. He tightened the world record in 2022 to 2.01.09. In 2019, in Vienna, with the help of a large group of pacers, he was the first man to run the distance of 42.195 kilometers under two hours (1.59.40), but that time has never been recognized.

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