Eliud Kipchoge

Eliud Kipchoge (born 5 November 1984 ) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly specialized in the 5000 metres.

Kipchoge was born on 5 November 1984 in Kapsisiywa, Nandi County, in Kenya.

He graduated from the Kaptel Secondary School in Nandi County in 1999 but did not run seriously or as a profession then.

He ran 3 km to school on a daily basis.

Kipchoge was raised by a single mother (a teacher), and only knew his father from pictures.

He is the youngest of four children.

He met his trainer Patrick Sang (a former Olympic medalist in the steeplechase) in 2001 at the age of 16.

Kipchoge's wife and three children live in Eldoret, Kenya.

He lives and trains in Kaptagat, 30 km (19 miles) from Eldoret.

He is a devout Catholic.

In 2002, he won at the Kenyan trials for the 2002 IAAF World Cross Country Championships junior race.

At the World Cross Country Championships, held in Dublin, Kipchoge finished fifth in the individual race and was part of the Kenyan junior team that won gold.

Kipchoge also won the 5000 metres race at the Kenyan trial for the 2002 World Junior Championships in Athletics but fell ill and missed the championships.

Kipchoge claimed his first individual world championship title in 2003 by winning the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships and setting a world junior record over 5000 m on the track.

At the age of eighteen, he became the senior 5000 m world champion at the 2003 World Championships with a championship record, then followed by an Olympic bronze for Kenya in 2004 and a bronze at the 2006 World Indoor Championships.

A five-time World Championship 5000 m finalist, Kipchoge took silver medals at the 2007 World Championships, 2008 Beijing Olympics, and 2010 Commonwealth Games.

He won the junior race at the 2003 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

He set a world junior record in the 5000 m at the 2003 Bislett Games, running a time of 12:52.61 minutes.

In July, he participated in the Golden League 2004 Roma Meeting.

In the 5000 m event, he dipped first among the starters with 12:46.53, which made him the sixth-fastest ever in the event.

In 2004, Kipchoge won a bronze medal at the 5000 m final at the 2004 Athens Olympics, behind El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele.

He also won the Trofeo Alasport cross country race earlier that season.

Kipchoge won the bronze in the 3000 metres indoor at the 2006 World Championships in Moscow.

At the end of the year, Kipchoge won the San Silvestre Vallecana New Year's Eve 10 km road race in a time of 26:54 minutes, which beat his own course record by 40 seconds.

This time was also better than the 10K road world record at the time but was run on a downhill course.

He switched to road running in 2012 and made the second-fastest half marathon debut ever, at 59:25.

This stood as the world and African junior record until 2012 when it was improved to 12:47.53 minutes by Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia.

Kipchoge won a gold medal at the 5000 m final at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, outsprinting runner-up Hicham El Guerrouj, the world record holder in the 1500 metres and mile, by four-hundredths of a second in 12:52.79.

In his marathon debut, he won the 2013 Hamburg Marathon in a course record time.

With 15 victories out of his 18 marathons, Kipchoge's only losses have been 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 in his debut at the Boston Marathon in 2023.

His first victory at a World Marathon Major came at the Chicago Marathon in 2014, and he went on to become series champion a record five times – for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022.

He has won the London Marathon a record four times and also holds the record for most Berlin Marathon wins with five, his latest coming in September 2023.

Regarded as one of the greatest marathon runners of all time, he is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion, and was the world record holder in the marathon from 2018 to 2023, with a time of 2:01:09 set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, until that record was broken by Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon with a time of 2:00:35.

He has run four of the 10 fastest marathons in history.

Kipchoge's last world record run broke by 30 seconds his own 2018 world record, which was in turn a 78-second improvement over the existing best, the greatest improvement in a marathon world record time since 1967.

On 12 October 2019, Kipchoge ran the marathon distance for the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, achieving a time of 1:59:40.2, becoming the first person in recorded history to do a sub-two-hour marathon.

The run did not count as a new marathon record, as standard competition rules for pacing and fluids were not followed, and it was not an open event.

Kipchoge was appointed Elder of the Order of the Golden Heart by President Uhuru Kenyatta on 20 October 2019 in recognition of his sub-two-hour marathon.

He was also named the 2019 BBC World Sport Star of the Year.

In 2023 he was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award in the category "Sports".