FAITH KIPYEGON: MOTHERHOOD AND GLORY

 

Faith Kipyegon: motherhood and track glory!

 

     

    Faith with her daughter Alyn

(Courtesy of Olympics.com)

By the time she turned 22, Faith Kipyegon had tasted world and Olympic glory, but she still craved more.

The Kenyan star wanted the world record, especially in the 1500m, an event she had ruled since Rio 2016 where she won her first Olympic gold.

After making history at the London 2017 World Athletics Championships as the first Kenyan woman to win the 1500m, Kipyegon took a maternity break. The double Olympic champion managed to train until she was about five months along, but the delivery was traumatic.

Kipyegon needed an emergency Caesarean section to deliver her daughter Alyn in June 2018. There were moments the athlete worried if she could ever compete again.

“I was so afraid, [thinking], ‘Maybe I will not come back, I will just disappear',” she said.

But Kipyegon did return to competition, exactly one year later, and was the surprise winner of the Prefontaine Classic just two months before taking silver at the 2019 Worlds.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics she retained her champion status and a year later captured the world title in Eugene.

The three-time world medallist has gone unbeaten since then, and this year she found another breakthrough – rewriting not one but three world records. Kipyegon is now the fastest woman ever in the 1500m, 5000m and mile events.

“[I proved that] you can take a maternity break and come back even stronger. Before I gave birth to Alyn, I never ran a world record, but now I am here with Alyn and the world record. I want to be an inspiration to many,” she said in a recent interview with Olympics.com, explaining how motherhood has helped her develop mental resilience in her races.

Kipyegon is now well on the way to becoming the most decorated 1500m female star, as she eyes an unprecedented third world title at Budapest 2023, and a third straight Olympic gold next year in Paris.

 

CHILDREN of Kenya’s Rift Valley were born to run and become world champions. Without the Rift Valley athletes, there is very little or no history of Kenya athletics. Those who saw the magnificent Kipchoge Keino run (and I did from the very first day he ran in competition) will never forget the majesty of the athlete who wrote Kenya’s first chapters of athletics. Many others followed and to this day many continue to follow in Kip’s footsteps.

 

Daniel arap Moi, a teacher who was to become vice president and later president of Kenya, first some athletes training at Jeane’s School Kabete. He saw the potential for the Rift Valley and on his return visited every school and urged them to start training. In fact, most children already had, they had to run miles up and down the hills from home to school and back. Thus the legend was born.

Faith Kipyegon ran barefoot as most children did in the very early days. Yet Faith was doing it in the much more emancipated 2010. She made her international debut at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, competing against older athletes. She finished fourth in the women’s junior race. Later that year she finished 3^rd in the 1500 metres at the Kenyan World Junior Championships Trials in Nairobi. The rest is history.

She is married to fellow Kenyan middle-distance runner Timothy Kitum.

 

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).^[9][10] Later that year, she showed her track potential by finishing third in the 1500 metres at the Kenyan World Junior Championship Trials in Nairobi. (Wikipedia)

 

At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Kipyegon won a gold medal in the 1500 m. She also won a gold medal in the 1500 m at the 2017, 2022 and 2023 World Athletics Championships and in the 5000 m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.