Faith Kipyegon

Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon (born 10 January 1994) is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner.

Kipyegon is the current world record holder for the 1,500 metres and mile, both set in 2023, and the former world record holder for the 5,000 metres.

In 2010, at age 16, a barefooted Kipyegon made her international debut at the World Cross Country Championships held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, competing against athletes up to three years her senior.

She placed fourth in the women's junior race as the youngest finisher in the top 21, and earned the gold medal with her under-20 team (it was a Kenyan 1–4 sweep).

Later that year, she showed her track potential by finishing third in the 1500 metres at the Kenyan World Junior Championship Trials in Nairobi.

As a junior, Kipyegon won gold medals at the 2011 and 2013 World Cross Country Championships and in the 1500 m at the 2011 World Youth Championships and the 2012 World Junior Championships.

Running barefoot again, Kipyegon went three better and won the individual gold medal at the 2011 edition in Punta Umbria, Spain, adding a silver with her team.

A few months later, she raced the 1500 m at the World Youth Championships in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France, taking the women's crown ahead of two Ethiopian runners with a time of 4:09.48 and breaking the championship record in the process.

Kipyegon is married to middle-distance runner Timothy Kitum, the 2012 Olympic 800 m bronze medallist.

Her 2012 season started with a bang as, after the 800 metres race in April, she set a swift national junior 1500 m record of 4:03.82 at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting (5th) the following month.

In June, the 18-year-old won the event at the Kenyan Junior Athletics Championships, and finished third at the Kenyan Olympic Trials to secure a spot on the national team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

At the World Junior Championships held in July in Barcelona, she ran a championship record again to claim gold in her specialist event way ahead of the field with a time of 4:04.96; Serbian Amela Terzić and Ethiopian Senbere Teferi took second and third place respectively.

She placed ninth in her heat at the London Olympics in August in a time of 4:08.78 (sixth after later doping disqualifications), failing to advance to the semi-finals.

At the beginning of the 2013 season, she defended her junior title at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz (PL).

On 10 May at the Diamond League meeting in Doha, Qatar, she broke for the first time the 4-minute barrier in the 1500 m, clocking an African U20 and Kenyan senior record of 3:56.98.

Kipyegon finished second behind Swedish runner Abeba Aregawi but beat Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba in third.

In August, at the Moscow World Championships, the 19-year-old came fifth in the final in a time of 4:05.08.

In March, she claimed victory in the senior women's race (8 km) at the African Cross Country Championships held in Kampala, Uganda, beating silver medallist by more than eight seconds.

In May, she was a member of the team which won the gold medal in the 4 × 1500 m relay at the first IAAF World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, along with Mercy Cherono, Irene Jelagat and Hellen Obiri.

The Kenyan team, ahead of the United States and Australia, set a new world record of 16:33.58.

That same year in July, Kipyegon took her first senior 1500 m victory, becoming the Glasgow Commonwealth Games champion in Scotland with a time of 4:08.94.

The 20-year-old finished fifth over the distance, however, at the African Championships staged in Marrakesh, Morocco in August, clocking a disappointing 4:13.46.

On 25 August, Kipyegon won a silver in the 1500 m event at the World Championships held in Beijing.

After a tactical race she finished second in a time of 4:08.96 behind only then fresh world record holder Genzebe Dibaba who clocked 4:08.09.

Sifan Hassan representing the Netherlands was third in 4:09.34.

On 11 September, she secured her first Diamond League victory, winning the mile race in Brussels.

It was the notable success as she set a meeting and African record of 4:16.71, beating Hassan who ran 4:18.20 in the final stretch.

Kipyegon got her Olympic campaign off to a strong start on 14 May, racing the 1500 m at the Shanghai Diamond League.

She improved her own 2013 Kenyan record to 3:56.82 for a win, setting also the meeting record.

Kipyegon won a gold medal each at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 1,500 m. She also won a gold medal in the 1,500 m at the 2017, 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships and in the 5,000 m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

Kipyegon was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2017.

Faith Kipyegon was the eighth of nine children growing up on a farm in a village near Keringet, Nakuru County in the Kenyan Rift Valley.

She comes from a Kalenjin tribe.

Her elder sister and former training partner Beatrice Mutai is a 10 km and half marathon specialist.

Her Father Samuel Kipyegon Koech was a 400 m and 800 m runner in his youth, while her mother Linah Koech had also contact with athletics.

Faith was a soccer player until she was introduced to athletics at school aged 14.

She lined up for a one-kilometer run in P.E. class and won that race by 20 metres.

She attended Winners Girls High School in Keringet.

She trains in Kaptagat (and Kapsabet) coached since the end of 2017 by Patrick Sang, triple global 3000 m steeplechase silver medallist, who is also coaching marathon world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge.

They have a daughter, Alyn, born in June 2018.