In October 2023, a 23-year-old Kenyan marathon runner made an impact by lowering the world record of 42 kilometers 195 meters, owned by one of the figures in the discipline of the last ten years: Eliud Kipchoge. The break-up of that young man named Kelvin Kiptum didn’t surprise the most loyal fans of athletics, but it did take on significance because of how close he was to going down the two hours, a feat that no human being achieved in an official race for points. Four months later, in a confusing episode on public roads, Kiptum lost his life due to head injuries following a serious traffic accident on a road near his home in Kenya.
On Tuesday, Eliud Kipchoge revealed in an interview with BBC Sport Africa that he suffered harassment in the weeks following Kiptum’s death on February 11, which caused him a lot of damage and affected his performance in the Tokyo Marathon in March.
Kipchoge explained that after Kiptum’s sudden death, social media users began accusing him of being intentionally involved in the incident: “Learning about his death was the worst news of my life. They told me they were going to burn down my training place, my investments in the city, my house, my family,” he said, broken with anguish.
The double Olympic champion broke down emotionally during an interview with the African BBC, in which he recounted how he was the victim of a campaign that speculated that it was related to the death of his compatriot and rival: “What happened has made me not trust anyone, not even my own shadow. I was surprised that people on social media said so many things about me,” said Kipchoge, 39.
Kipchoge recalled the precautions he took when he saw how the social media was filled with insults and threats: “I have no power to go to the police and tell them that my life is in danger. So my concern was to tell my family to be especially cautious. I started calling a lot of people.” Recalling the call to his mother, the two-time Olympic champion collapsed: “She told me to take care of myself. I come from a very rural area. And at my mother’s age, I really realized that social media can reach anywhere. But she encouraged me. It was a difficult month.”
The second fastest man to run a marathon (2h01m09s, Berlin, 2022) explained that he maintained his training routines, but confessed that he lost many friends. Less than three months before Paris 2024, sadness over Kiptum’s death is mixed with the pain of knowing that fans will miss the confrontation between them in the French capital.
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