Faith Kipyegon Biography
Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon, a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner who primarily competes in the 1500 meters, was born on January 10, 1994. She is the only woman to win four global 1500 m titles and just the second woman to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the event. She holds the Games record for the event and is a two-time world champion. On the track, Kipyegon, who is recognized as the greatest female 1500-meter runner in history, has won or placed second in each major event since 2015.
She has the 1000-meter African record as well as the world and 5000-meter records for the distance. She broke the 3:50 barrier in the 1500 m on June 2, 2023 in Florence with a time of 3:49.11, making her the first and only woman in history to do so. Kipyegon also established a 5000 m world record in Paris just seven days later.
She won world titles at the 2017 and 2022 World Athletics Championships in addition to Olympic titles at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games. In 2015, when she finished second only to the multiple world record holder Genzebe Dibaba, and in 2019, when she competed again after giving birth the year before, Kipyegon won global silver medals. Kipyegon, one of only five athletes to have dominated at every world age-group level in their chosen track and field discipline (under-18, U20, and senior), has two of the three fastest female 1500 m times in history (3/6, 7/14) and set a senior world record.
In both 2011 and 2012, Kipyegon took first place in her specialty event at the World U18 Championships. Despite winning the junior events at the 2011 and 2013 World Cross Country Championships and placing sixth at the 2013 World Championships, she was unable to get past the quarterfinals of the 2012 London Olympics at the age of 18. She has also won the Diamond League three times and was the Commonwealth Games champion in 2014.
In 2017, the New African magazine listed Kipyegon as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans.
Wiki
Name: | Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon |
Age: | 29 Years |
Husband: | Timothy Kitum |
Date of Birth: | 10 January 1994 |
Nationality: | American |
Net Worth: | $6 million |
Faith Kipyegon Age
On January 10, 1994, Kipyegon was born. In 2023, he will be 29 years old.
Early life and background
Growing up on a farm in the Kenyan Rift Valley’s Ndabibit community, close to Keringet, Faith Kipyegon was the eighth of nine children. She is a Kalenjin tribe member. Beatrice Mutai, her older sister and a previous training companion, excels at 10 km and half marathons. In his childhood, her mother Linah Koech and father Samuel Kipyegon Koech both competed in the 400 and 800 meters. Up to the age of 14, Faith played soccer before being introduced to athletics at school. In P.E. class, she lined up for a one-kilometer run, which she won by 20 meters. She studied at Keringet’s Winners Girls High School.
Faith Kipyegon Height and Weight
Faith Kipyegon weighs 42 kg and is 5.2 feet tall.
Faith Kipyegon Parents and Siblings
Growing up on a farm in the Kenyan Rift Valley’s Ndabibit community, close to Keringet, Faith Kipyegon was the eighth of nine children. She is a Kalenjin tribe member. Beatrice Mutai, her older sister and a previous training companion, excels at 10 km and half marathons. In his childhood, her mother Linah Koech and father Samuel Kipyegon Koech both competed in the 400 and 800 meters. Up to the age of 14, Faith played soccer before being introduced to athletics at school. In P.E. class, she lined up for a one-kilometer run, which she won by 20 meters. She studied at Keringet’s Winners Girls High School.
Personal life and coach
Middle-distance runner Timothy Kitum, who won the 800 m bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics, is married to Kipyegon. Alyn, a daughter, was born to them in June 2018.
She has been trained at Kaptagat (and Kapsabet) by Patrick Sang, a triple world 3000 m steeplechase silver medalist who also coaches marathon world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge, since the end of 2017.
Faith Kipyegon Husband
Middle-distance runner Timothy Kitum, who won the 800 m bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics, is married to Kipyegon. Alyn, a daughter, was born to them in June 2018.
She has been trained at Kaptagat (and Kapsabet) by Patrick Sang, a triple world 3000 m steeplechase silver medalist who also coaches marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, since the end of 2017.
Faith Kipyegon Net Worth
More than $6 million is thought to be in Faith Kipyegon’s financial possession.
Junior career
At the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in 2010, a 16-year-old Kipyegon made her international debut while competing against runners up to three years her senior. She was the youngest finisher in the top 21 in the women’s junior race, finishing fourth, and she won the gold medal with her under-20 team (Kenya won 1-4, taking the race by storm). Later that year, at the Kenyan World Junior Championship Trials in Nairobi, she displayed her promise on the track by placing third in the 1500 meters.
At the 2011 competition in Punta Umbria, Spain, Kipyegon ran barefoot once more and improved three places to win the solo gold medal and earn a silver with her team. A few months later, she competed in the 1500 m at the World Youth Championships in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France. She won the women’s title with a time of 4:09.48, beating out two Ethiopian competitors in the process and shattering the competition record.
Her 2012 campaign got off to a fast start as she quickly set the national junior 1500 m record of 4:03.82 at the Shanghai Diamond League competition in May after winning the 800 m race in April. The 18-year-old qualified for the national team for the London 2012 Olympic Games after winning the competition at the Kenyan Junior Athletics Championships in June and placing third in the Kenyan Olympic Trials.
She ran a championship record once more to win gold in her specialty event at the World Junior Championships held in July in Barcelona with a time of 4:04.96; Serbian Amela Terzi and Ethiopian Senbere Teferi claimed second and third place, respectively. She finished sixth after further drug disqualifications at the London Olympics in August in ninth position with a time of 4:08.78, missing out on advancing to the semifinals.
She successfully defended her junior title at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz (PL) at the start of the 2013 campaign. She broke the four-minute barrier in the 1500 m on May 10 at the Diamond League competition in Doha, Qatar, posting a time that set African U20 and Kenyan senior records of 3:56.98. Kipyegon overcame Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia to take second place, just behind Swedish runner Abeba Aregawi. The 19-year-old finished fifth in the final at the Moscow World Championships in August with a time of 4:05.08.
Senior career
2014: Commonwealth champion
At the African Cross Country Championships in Kampala, Uganda, in March, she won the senior women’s event (8 km), beating the silver medalist by more than eight seconds.[12] Along with Mercy Cherono, Irene Jelagat, and Hellen Obiri, she was a member of the team that captured the gold medal in the 4 x 1500 m relay at the inaugural IAAF World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, in May. The Kenyan team achieved a new world record with a time of 16:33.58, beating out the USA and Australia.
In July of the same year, Kipyegon won her maiden senior 1500-meter race and went on to win the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in Scotland with a time of 4:08.94. The 20-year-old ran a disappointing 4:13.46 and came in fifth place over the distance in the August African Championships held in Marrakesh, Morocco.
2015: World championship silver medallist
Kipyegon won silver in the 1500 m race on August 25 at the World Championships in Beijing. After a strategic race, she came in second place in a time of 4:08.96, just behind Genzebe Dibaba, who had just broken the previous world mark with a time of 4:08.09. Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands came in third with a time of 4:09.34.
Her first Diamond League triumph came on September 11 when she won the mile race in Brussels. She beat Hassan, who ran 4:18.20 in the final stretch, setting a meeting and African record, making it a memorable victory.
2016: First Olympic title in Rio
At the Shanghai Diamond League on May 14, Kipyegon raced the 1500 m to start her Olympic campaign off brightly. She beat her own 2013 Kenyan record to win in 3:56.82, breaking the meeting record in the process. She duplicated all of these accomplishments two weeks later at the Eugene Diamond Race meet in Oregon, USA, bringing her personal best down to 3:56.41. Additionally, she won the mile competition at the June Oslo Diamond League.
In Rio de Janeiro, the then-22-year-old reversed the standings from the World Championships the year before to win the 1500 m Olympic gold medal. She outran Dibaba in the final 200 meters of what had been a tactical race that started out very slowly. Her third lap was completed in 56.80 seconds, and her final 800 meters were completed in 1:57.2. Kipyegon finished in 4:08.92, Dibaba in 4:10.27, and Jenny Simpson in 4:10.53 for third place.
2017: First senior world title
She won three races in Shanghai, Eugene, and Brussels, earning her first Diamond League 1500 m Trophy. The new championship-style system, in which overall event winners are selected solely by the outcomes of the final meet, was introduced for the first time during this season of the series. At the September Brussels Final, Kipyegon outran female adversary Sifan Hassan by three seconds, 3:57.04 to 3:57.22.
Her greatest achievement that year was taking first place at the London World Championships in August, making history as the first Kenyan woman to win the 1500 m finals of both the Olympic and World Championships. The 23-year-old finished in 4:02.59, and two other women, Caster Semenya of DSD, and Jenny Simpson, also finished in timings under 4:03.
“I won the Olympics in 2016, but because I fought the hardest in 2017, the triumph at the World Championships was sweeter. I was only scared about Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba in Rio 2016 because I had a great season. Caster Semenya, Dibaba, Sifan Hassan, Laura Muir, and Jennifer Simpson were all gold medal contenders in London, according to Kipyegon.
2018–2020: Motherhood and comeback, world championship silver medallist
Following her doctor’s advice, Kipyegon exercised up until she was four to five months pregnant. She underwent a caesarean operation in June 2018 to give birth to her first child, a daughter named Alyn, because her baby was in the incorrect position. In January 2019, Kipyegon resumed training after an approximately 18-month hiatus. Six months and a year after giving birth, at the end of June, she had a triumphant racing comeback by winning her speciality at the Prefontaine Classic of the Eugene Diamond League, which was held that year in Palo Alto, in 3:59:04.
At the World Championships in Doha, Kipyegon won the silver medal after shaving more than two seconds off the previous Kenyan record set in 2016. Her final time was 3:54.22. Sifan Hassan won in 3:51.95, and Gudaf Tsegay finished third in a personal best of 3:54.38.
She participated in the Diamond League and Continental Tour meetings in 2020, winning all six of her races. In the 1000 meters at the Herculis meet in Monaco in August, she posted the second-fastest time ever, a Diamond League and African record with a run of 2:29.15, falling only 0.17 seconds shy of the world record set back in 1996 by Svetlana Masterkova.
2021: Second back-to-back Olympic title in Tokyo
Kipyegon significantly enhanced her Kenyan national record at the Diamond League meetings in 2021. She finished second in the Rome Golden Gala on June 10 in 3:53.91, narrowly behind Sifan Hassan, who ran 3:53.63, in a spectacular Florence staging. At the Monaco Herculis on July 9, Kipyegon reduced that time by nearly three seconds to win, stopping the clock in a world-leading 3:51.07, which was at the time the fourth-fastest female performance in history and was just one second slower than Genzebe Dibaba’s world record, which she also set in Monaco in 2015. In the final straight, she outran Hassan by nearly 2.5 seconds.
In the women’s 1500-meter final at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in August, Kipyegon passed Hassan in the final 200 meters to win her second consecutive gold medal in the competition in a time of 3:53.11, shattering the 33-year-old Games record. She became just the second woman in history to win the 1500 m competition twice. Laura Muir broke a British record with a time of 3:54.50 to win the silver medal as Hassan slowed down in the final 100 meters to finish third (3:55.86).
She won the final of the Zürich Weltklasse Diamond League in September by defeating Hassan once more to win her second 1500 m Diamond Trophy. In her ten events this season, Kipyegon prevailed in nine of them.
2022: Second senior world title
Kipyegon won her trademark competition at the Eugene Diamond League in the United States in May.
With a winning time of 3:52.96 at the World Championships, which were also held in Eugene in July, Kipyegon became the first female athlete to win four global titles over the 1500 m distance. Gudaf Tsegay came in second with a time of 3:54.52, and Laura Muir took third (3:55.28).
At the Monaco Diamond League on August 10, Kipyegon achieved a new Kenyan record and the second-fastest time ever with a time of 3:50.37, coming within 0.3 seconds of Dibaba’s world record. She possessed six of the thirteen fastest women’s 1500 m times in history as of August 2022, with splits of 60.5, 62.1, 62.1, and 45.67 (last 400 meters in 61.3 s). The following month, she finished her third Diamond League 1500 m championship with a decisive victory at the Zürich circuit’s final, closing out yet another excellent season with a powerful finish (last lap in 57.75 and last 200 m in 27.8). All six of Kipyegon’s 1500 m events this season were victories.
She stated in a November interview with Athletics Weekly that she hoped to run marathons in the future.
2023–present: World 1500 m and 5000 m records
On February 4 in Eldoret, Kenya, Kipyegon won handily in the Sirikwa Cross Country Classic (10 km), kicking off her 2023 season.
On June 2, she finally added the final item to her résumé when she ran the 1500 meters in a world record time of 3:49.11. She did this to become the first woman in history to break the 3:50 barrier in the discipline. The 29-year-old ran a significant negative split at the Rome Diamond League, which was held in Florence that year and cut about a second off Dibaba’s time (3:50.07).
She completed the 800 meters in 2:04, as a pacemaker was requested (the previous record was 2:02.7), and she rang the bell in 2:50.2 (Dibaba did so in 2:50.3). Over the last two laps, Kipyegon excelled, clocking her final 800 meters in 2:00.6, final 400 meters in 58.81, and final 200 meters in 29.2. After she completed her lap of honor, the entire field of competitors praised and embraced her.
Kipyegon broke Letesenbet Gidey’s 5000-meter world record of 14:06.62 set in 2020 exactly seven days later, on June 9, to make it two world records in a week. It was Faith’s first race over the distance since 2015 and her third overall, thus her second world record came as a surprise. She set a new personal best at the Paris Diamond League (14:05.20) and cut 1.42 seconds off the previous world record in a dramatic race against Letesenbet.
With 600 meters remaining, she passed her, but Letesenbet was right behind her. Both runners were around six seconds slower than the world record pace. In a sprint finish in the final 200 meters timed at 28.1 seconds—even quicker than in her 1500 m world record race—Kipyegon defeated Letesenbet. She became the first Kenyan woman to hold the 5000-meter record and only the second woman in history to simultaneously hold the 1500-meter and 5000-meter marks after Paola Pigni in 1969.
Is Faith Kipyegon married?
At the 2012 London Olympic Games in England, a collage of Faith Kipyegon and her husband Timothy Kitum (L) shows them enjoying their bronze-medal victory.
Where is Faith Kipyegon born?
The county seat and major city in Bomet County, Kenya, is called Bomet. The entire population of Bomet is 110,963. Along the Mai Mahiu-Narok-Kisii road, B3, is where you can find it. One of Milwaukee’s eight sister cities is Bomet City.
Which tribe is Faith Kipyegon?
Growing up on a farm in the Kenyan Rift Valley’s Ndabibit community, close to Keringet, Faith Kipyegon was the eighth of nine children. She is a Kalenjin tribe member. Beatrice Mutai, her older sister and a previous training companion, excels at 10 km and half marathons.
How many children does Faith Kipyegon have?
Just two years after winning her maiden Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Kipyegon gave birth to Alyne in 2018. She recovered swiftly, and in 2019 she was named to Kenya’s lineup for the world championships in an effort to defend her title.
How much money did Faith Kipyegon win?
Tuesday, Kenyan President William Ruto presented Faith Kipyegon with a house and $35,000 as a gift for setting two world records in a single week. Kipyegon claimed she would now carry out a promise she had made to buy her father a new automobile when she met with Ruto in the president’s office.
Who is the coach of Faith Kipyegon?
Faith Kipyegon, a two-time world and Olympic champion in the 1500 meters, has discussed how training with renowned coach Patrick Sang and marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge elevated her performance and allowed her to smash the world record in Florence last week.