Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya)
The Kenyan long-distance runner, born on November 5, 1984, is widely regarded as the greatest marathoner of all time. Born in Kapsisiywa, Nandi County of Kenya, he started his career at a tender age running three kilometers daily to his school – Kaptel Secondary School. He is the current world record holder with a time of 2:01:09 achieved during the 2022 Berlin Marathon. He achieved four fastest marathons out of the six fastest marathons in history.
He has participated in different Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cross Country Championships, World Indoor Championships, Common Wealth Games, and World Marathon Majors.
He has won 14 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and two bronze medals. He won 10 gold medals alone at the World Marathon Majors. He is the third man to successfully defend an Olympic marathon and the third Olympic champion to win back-to-back Olympic marathons after Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia and Waldemar Cierpinski of East Germany.
Some of his awards include 2015, 2016, 2017 – AIMS Best Marathon Runner –Men, 2018 – United Nations Kenya Person of the Year, 2019, 2019 – IAAF Male Athlete of the Year, 2019 – BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year.
He was named among the Top 100 Most Influential Africans in 2019 by the New African magazine. In 2021, he was named the Best Male Athlete Tokyo 2020 Olympics by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
