Wednesday, May 8, 2024, 20:29 | Updated 8:39 p.m.
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Never before had Eliud Kipchoge broken down in front of a camera. Always calm, living up to his nickname of ‘the philosopher’, his half smile never broke. Not even when he suffered his few defeats in the marathon, on bitter days like those in London, Boston or Tokyo. Until now. The man who for many is the best marathon runner of all time has collapsed when remembering the threats he has received after the death of record holder Kelvin Kiptum. «What happened has made me not trust anyone, not even my own shadow. “I was surprised that people on social networks said ‘Eliud is involved in the death of this boy’,” he confessed in an interview with the BBC a few months before his date with history at the Paris Olympic Games, where he will try to be the first athlete to win three golds in the Pheidippides distance.
It all happened after Kelvin Kiptum, world marathon record holder with an astonishing mark of 2:00:35 in the last edition of Chicago, died in a car accident that occurred near his home in Kenya. «They told me that they would burn the (training) camp, that they would burn my investments in the city, that they would burn my house, that they would burn my family. “It was the worst news of my life,” Kipchoge now confesses.
In fact, this circumstance forced the athlete to take precautions. «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.” The winner of the Princess of Asturias Sports Award in 2023 has indicated that “I am very scared for my children when they go to and from school. Sometimes they ride their bikes so we had to stop them, because you never know what will happen. “We start taking them in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon.”
📺🎙️ Eliud Kipchoge 🇰🇪 opens the channel before the BBC microphones to talk about the death of Kelvin Kiptum and the attacks he received on social networks after the accident.
We had never seen him this excited in an interview. #HALL pic.twitter.com/UkJth7Si6V
— CORREDOR (@soycorredor_es) May 8, 2024
“My daughter was in boarding school, that was positive because she didn’t have access when it came to social media, but it’s difficult for my children to hear ‘your dad has killed someone,'” she acknowledges. And, when she remembers the call to her mother, Kipchoge breaks down. «My worst moment was when I tried to call my mother. She told me ‘just take care of yourself’ and ‘a lot has been going on’. I come from a very local area. And as my mother got older, I really realized that social media can go anywhere. But she encouraged me. “It was a difficult month.”
The second fastest man to run a marathon (2.01:09, Berlin in 2022) admits that he lost “around 90%” of his friends. «It was very painful to realize even from my own people, my training partners, those I have contact with, and the bad words come from them. “I learned that friendship is not forever,” he said. What he ruled out was eliminating his social networks. “If I delete my accounts, then it shows I’m hiding something,” he reasoned.
All this affected his performance in the Tokyo Marathon, with a mark much lower than that of his previous participation, very far from the winner, Benson Kipruto. “I went three whole days without sleep, day and night.” Now, he turns the page and thinks about the Games. “I want to go into the history books, to be the first human being to win three times in a row.” Paris awaits you.
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2024-05-08 18:39:58
#threats #Kipchoge #death #record #holder #Kiptum #burn #family
