Unstoppable Faith Kipyegon Aims for Olympic Gold Three-Peat
After once again proving her dominance breaking the world record in the 1500m weeks before the Paris Olympics, the Kenyan star runner is ready to show why she is the best to ever do it.
Kenya's Faith Kipyegon reacts after winning and beating the world record in the women's 1500m during the "Meeting de Paris" Diamond League athletics meeting at the Charlety Stadium in Paris on July 7, 2024.
Having once again broken her own world record in the women's 1500 meters at the Paris Diamond League this past Sunday, Faith Kipyegon’s eyes are on a different prize as she heads to this year’s Olympic Games: becoming a three-time consecutive Olympic gold medalist in her favorite distance.
Kipyegon, who is also a multiple-time world champion, is set to defend her 1500m Olympic title in Paris this summer after qualifying to run both the 1500m and 5000m races at the Kenya Olympic trials in June.
Kipyegon clocked 3:49.04 in her first Diamond League appearance of the season, shattering her previous 1500m record of 3:49.11, set last June in Florence.
"I am so happy to break the world record over my favorite distance again,” she wrote in an Instagram post on Sunday. “Thank you everyone for the support and thank you Paris. I can’t wait to come back to defend my Olympic title!"
No Kenyan athlete has won an Olympic gold medal three times in a row in the same distance. Only three athletes have won two consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 1500m event. The 30-year-old runner took home the gold in the 1500m at the Rio De Janeiro Olympics in 2016, and the Tokyo Olympics 2020 (in 2021).
Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge will also be looking to win his third gold medal in Paris.
“I want to make history, definitely!,” Kipyegon told Kenya’s Citizen TV in an interview last October. “That is history. If I [can win the gold again], that is a legacy for the next generation.”
Kipyegon has also become a pillar for women athletes after giving birth to her daughter, Alyn, in 2018 before successfully returning to running.
“I wanted to motivate young mothers, that they can go on maternity leave and return to work,” she told Citizen TV.
“It was not too hard because I had the right support system,” she said of pregnancy, citing her manager, coach and husband as the perfect backing team. Her husband, 2012 Olympic 800m bronze medallist Timothy Kitum, stepped away from running due to injury.
Kipyegon was named a World Athlete of the Year for 2023 by World Athletics, after breaking three world records in three separate distances in under 50 days: the 1,500m, the mile, and the 5000m. Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay Desta has since broken the 5000m record.
The Olympic games are set to take place in Paris from July 26 to August 11, 2024. And Kipyegon told the media after her world record run on Sunday that she is more than ready.
“Records are there to be broken. I’ll go back home and work on a bit of tactics. Then I will come back for the Olympics.”
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