Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge (39) has been very concerned about the safety of his family. The two-time Olympic champion said this in an interview with BBC Sport Africa. He received numerous threats online from people who claimed he was involved in a conspiracy to kill Kelvin Kiptum, who died in February.
“I was shocked that people on social media said I was involved in this boy’s death,” Kipchoge said. “This was the worst news ever in my life.”
Kiptum died in a single-vehicle car accident in February. He was 24 years old and was considered the greatest talent in the marathon. In Chicago in the fall of 2023, he set the world record for the marathon with a time of 2:00:35. In the years before that, Kipchoge was the record holder.
“I received very nasty messages,” said Kipchoge, who is going for his third gold in a row at the Paris Olympics this summer. Our compatriot Bashir Abdi, good for Olympic bronze in Tokyo, will then become one of his competitors. “They want to burn 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.”
“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.’”
I’ve lost 90 percent of my friends.
Eliud Kipchoge
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 worries.” Kipchoge asks the social media platforms to take action. “People need to know that if they say something wrong, their account will be deleted.”
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 complete the distance of 42.195 kilometers under two hours (1:59:40), but that time has never been recognized.
PORTRAIT. “For four years I had the feeling that I had disappointed my parents”: the abruptly cut short life story of Kelvin Kiptum
A questionable fall from the balcony, but above all a suspicious number of car crashes: how Kelvin Kiptum is far from the first Kenyan athlete to die tragically
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