From a milkman to a sports star who wants to build libraries and plant trees

“I tried to memorize it and rushed home, took a pen and paper to write down what he told me while it was still in my mind,” recalls the two-time Olympic marathon champion.

History has seen many cases of Kenyan athletes running off the right path in life for fame and money. Foreign media estimates that Kipchoge may have earned around three million US dollars during his career.

“I don’t have extra money to get crazy about. I’m trying to keep my humanity. The money is in the bank, I don’t use it. I want to live a normal life,” said the Kenyan sports star.

Kipchoge worked as a milkman as a child. He had to cycle 40 kilometers from his family home to the farmers and back to town to sell milk.

“I am most proud of the library built in the neighborhood of my home. It is big, I want to build such libraries all over the country. I want to grow a forest at my training place. We plan to plant 2,000 trees,” Kipchoge revealed the plans.

The Kenyan sports star hopes that the level of education in his homeland and across East Africa will eventually improve. The motto of the library named after him is that no man is limited.

Kipchoge won the Berlin Marathon for the fifth time at the end of September. He covered the first half of the distance at world record pace, but finished in two hours, two minutes and 42 seconds.

At the beginning of October, Kenyan runner Kelvin Kiptum triumphed in the Chicago Marathon, beating Kipchoge’s world record by 34 seconds. The 23-year-old runner finished with a time of two hours and 35 seconds.

Kiptum has joined Kipchoge in the fight to expand the limits of human physical capabilities. The world is impatiently waiting to see if someone will really do it and who will succeed – run a marathon in less than two hours in an official competition.

“LMT Viedtelevizija” offers to watch a documentary film about the running legend – “Kipchoge: The Last Milestone” released in 2021.

The article was written in cooperation with “LMT Viedtelevizija”.

2023-10-11 21:04:46
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