A short history of Kenyan running: from Kip Keino to Kipchoge

In October 1968, in the thin air of Mexico City, a policeman from Nandi named Kipchoge Keino ran away from the world's best milers and won the 1,500 metres by a huge margin, despite a gallbladder problem that had nearly kept him out of the race. Kenya had won its first Olympic gold days earlier. It has not stopped winning since, and most of those medals have come from a handful of highland counties you can visit.

Kenya's running story starts with Wilson Kiprugut's 800 metres bronze in Tokyo in 1964 and breaks open in Mexico City in 1968, when Naftali Temu, Kip Keino and Amos Biwott all won gold. It runs through steeplechase dominance, the marathon revolution of Tegla Loroupe, Catherine Ndereba and Paul Tergat, David Rudisha's 800 metres world record, and Eliud Kipchoge's sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna in 2019. It also includes a serious doping problem, which we cover plainly below. Most of the champions came from the Kalenjin communities of the western highlands, and Iten, above the Kerio Valley, is where you can run with them.

Milestones

The first generation

Before independence, Kenyan athletes ran in colonial police and army teams and school competitions. The breakthrough came quickly after 1963. Kip Keino, from Nandi, became the country's first global sports star, and his duel with the American Jim Ryun in Mexico City is still the race older Kenyans talk about. Keino later founded a children's home and a school near Eldoret, and the stadium in Eldoret bears his name. The boycotts of 1976 and 1980 cost a generation its Olympic chances, but American college scholarships in the 1970s and 1980s, famously at Washington State and other schools, kept Kenyan runners racing and studying in the United States.

The steeplechase and the track

From 1968 to 2016, Kenyan men won every Olympic steeplechase they entered, a run broken only by the boycotts and by Morocco's Soufiane El Bakkali in Tokyo. Seoul in 1988 brought four track golds, and Barcelona in 1992 a clean sweep of the steeplechase podium. At 800 metres, David Rudisha, coached in Iten by the Irish missionary teacher Brother Colm O'Connell, won Olympic gold in 2012 and 2016 and set a world record that still stood at the time of writing.

Women break through

Kenyan women had fewer chances to train and travel, and their breakthrough came later. Tegla Loroupe, from West Pokot, won New York in 1994 and 1995 and set marathon world records in 1998 and 1999; she later founded a peace foundation and led the Refugee Olympic Team. Catherine Ndereba won Boston four times and set a world record in Chicago in 2001. Since then, runners such as Vivian Cheruiyot, Mary Keitany, Hellen Obiri and Faith Kipyegon, whose world records and three Olympic 1,500 metres titles make her one of the greatest middle-distance runners ever, have made Kenyan women as dominant as the men.

The marathon era and the sub-two debate

Paul Tergat's 2:04:55 in Berlin in 2003 opened the modern marathon era, and Kenyans have broken the world record again and again since. Eliud Kipchoge, who trains at Kaptagat near Eldoret, won Olympic marathon gold in 2016 and 2021. On October 12, 2019, in a specially staged race in Vienna, he ran 1:59:40. It was not ratified as a record, because of rotating pacers, a pace car and other aids, and runners still argue about what it means. It proved the barrier could be broken. Kipchoge's official record of 2:01:09 came in Berlin in 2022. A year later Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00:35 in Chicago; he was killed in a road accident near Kaptagat in February 2024, aged 24, and the whole country mourned.

Why the highlands?

There is no single answer, and Kenyan coaches are wary of anyone who claims one. Altitude helps: Iten sits around 2,400 metres, Eldoret around 2,100. So do soft dirt roads, a culture that celebrates runners, children who walk and run long distances, training camps where athletes live and run together, and the plain economics of a sport that can change a family's life. Most top runners come from Kalenjin communities in Elgeyo-Marakwet, Nandi, Uasin Gishu and neighbouring counties, with notable champions from other regions too.

The doping problem

It has to be said plainly. Since the mid-2010s, dozens of Kenyan athletes have been banned for doping, among them a former Boston and Chicago winner, Rita Jeptoo, and the former 1,500 metres world champion Asbel Kiprop. World Athletics places Kenya among the countries at highest risk, which means stricter testing before major championships. Kenya created the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya in 2016 and has since increased funding for testing. Many of the cases involve lower-level road runners chasing prize money, but the problem has damaged trust, and clean Kenyan runners are its first victims.

Where to see it

• Iten: the Home of Champions gate, Kamariny Stadium's dirt track and the early morning group runs on the roads above the Kerio Valley
• St Patrick's High School, Iten: the school where Brother Colm O'Connell coached generations of champions
• Eldoret: the Kipchoge Keino Stadium and the bustling town where many champions invest their winnings
• Nairobi: the Kip Keino Classic, a World Athletics Continental Tour meeting at Kasarani, and the Nairobi Marathon each autumn
• Kaptagat and other camps: private training bases; visits only by arrangement, never unannounced

Our running page explains how to join a training run in Iten, how fast the groups go and where to stay; you do not have to be quick, and most camps welcome visitors who come respectfully and on time. Eldoret has daily flights from Nairobi, and Iten is about 35 km from the airport.