Chasing Greatness: The East African Athlete Who Has Won Enough Gold To Rival A Monarch

Eliud Kipchoge, one of the world’s greatest runners, opens up about past heartbreak, triumph, and where he goes next.

Walk amongst the upper echelons of African athletes, and you’ll find Eliud Kipchoge.

If Haile Gebrselassie broke barriers, Kipchoge built new ones to demolish. A double Olympic marathon gold medalist, he’s competed at five Games, broken two world records, and became the first ever to run a sub-two-hour marathon.

Asked how it feels to cross the line in world-record time, Kipchoge tells FORBES AFRICA: “It’s beautiful, like being at the top of the mountain. But if you don’t treat the summit as the base of another new mountain, then you are lost.”

Born in Kenya’s infamous Rift Valley, a high altitude breeding ground for running icons like Kipchoge Keino and Faith Kipyegon, he has stood tall with giants of the sport, all while strutting his signature demeanor humble and reverential.

His breakout moment came as a fresh-faced 18-year-old at the 2003 World Athletics Championships’ 5,000m final in Paris, France.

Lining up against running royalty in Hicham El Guerrouj, and a highly-rated youngster in Kenenisa Bekele, a relatively unknown Kipchoge provided one of the all-time championship upsets.

“Kipchoge can’t go with him [El Guerrouj],” commentator and former British runner, Steve Cram, cried out over the airwaves heading into the final bend with just over 200m to go. Seconds later, Kipchoge caught up, eventually beating El Guerrouj by some four hundredths of a second.

A star was born under the Parisian lights, igniting what would become one of the most dominant careers in running.

Although Kipchoge has won enough gold to rival a monarch, it might not have been if it wasn’t for a calculated career change, or as Kipchoge puts it: “I needed to move to the road.”

Having competed in the track 5,000m in the Olympics of Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, winning bronze and silver respectively, failure to qualify for London 2012 solidified his transition to marathon running.

Heartbreak unearthed a natural; Kipchoge would go on to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020), and win 15 of his first 18 marathons.

Emerging from this emphatic winning streak was a resounding feeling that Kipchoge was of a different class.

He became the new giant to chase. Finding consistency is tough in all aspects of live, but few moments are more testing of this than professional sports. Competing against the best of the best doesn’t allow one to have an off day.

It’s all gas, no brakes; and in running, the question often on everyone’s lips is, who will have enough in the tank to numb the pain, and finish first? For Kipchoge, agony is let out by a subtle smirk, as if he had been eagerly waiting.

Perhaps it’s his humility and competitiveness converging.

“I learn more when I run long,” he says. “It teaches my body and mind, and that’s the beauty of marathons… I tell myself if I can handle this, then I can handle everything in this world.”

Kipchoge traveled to his final Olympics (Paris 2018) on the cusp of doing something no other athlete had ever accomplished: Win three consecutive marathon gold medals.

A fairy-tale ending was not to be after an unprecedented Did-Not-Finish triggered by back pain at around the 20km mark Kipchoge pushed on for over 10km before bowing out. He remembers it as the “worst time” in his career.

“The road in sport is not always smooth,” he says.

Yet, a year before, he had already proved that the previously inconceivable was possible. The Kenyan’s 1:59:40 in Vienna, running 2:50 per kilometer, will be forever etched into sporting folklore. Though, it wasn’t run under open marathon conditions, deeming it not a world record, it showed what was humanly possible.

Not to bother, he already had a world record banked, and would go on to smash it by 30 seconds at the 2022 Berlin Marathon in a time of 2:01:09.

Today, the 41-year-old’s attention is on Kenya’s next crop of stars. “I want to mentor them, clap for them, and show them the right way,” he says with a smile, alluding to his upcoming coaching role for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

But before then, a world tour awaits. Over the next two years, Kipchoge will run a marathon on each continent. Yes, even Antarctica. The seven-leg escapade began in Cape Town, South Africa, in May, and will be followed by Brazil in July, Australia in October, with dates for North America, Asia, Europe, and Antarctica, yet to be announced.

“I want to run for humanity, and challenge my body, challenge the world… Let us use sport to unite our world,” Kipchoge, who lives by the mantra of “no human is limited”, echoes proudly.

“Anything you want, work for it. Anything you aspire to be, do it… You compete with the world everyday… We need people who set goals and work towards them.

 “Running is life,” he continues, a moment where “freedom is found”. This is the gospel he wishes to preach on his adventure around the globe.

After a pause to reflect, Kipchoge reveals his desire to be remembered as an “all-around” runner: “When you talk of track and field, I have a piece of it; when you talk of road running, 10km, 15km and 21km, I have a piece of it; when you talk of marathons, I have a piece of it”.

A master of disciplines, Kipchoge loves running as much as running loves him, but only he will be remembered as one of Africa’s finest.

This article originally appeared on Forbes Africa.