Beatrice Chebet to take competition break as she prepares to welcome first child
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Reading Time: 3min | Sun. 04.01.26. | 15:16
The announcement comes at the end of a season that she firmly cemented her place among the greatest distance runners of her generation
Double Olympic and World champion Beatrice Chebet has announced she will take a break from competition as she prepares to welcome her first child.
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Chebet explained that the decision was shaped by both physical demands and personal priorities after an intense period of competition.
“I really pushed myself to the limit these last two years, and this year I thought it was wise to take some time off and recover, and while at it, become a mother,” she told Nation Sports.
The announcement comes at the end of a season that firmly cemented Chebet’s place among the greatest distance runners of her generation.
In 2025, she finally captured the World Championships gold medal that had long eluded her, delivering a historic double at the global showpiece in Tokyo.
Chebet entered the year with momentum carried over from an outstanding 2024 campaign.
In 2024, she defended her World Cross Country title in Belgrade before smashing the 10,000m world record in Eugene, earning her ticket to the Paris Olympics.
There, she made history as the first Kenyan woman to win double Olympic gold, claiming the 5,000m in 14:28.56 and the 10,000m in 30:43.25.
The pattern of excellence continued into 2025.
She opened her Diamond League season in Xiamen in April with a commanding 5,000m victory in 14:27.12.
In Rabat, Chebet dropped down to the 3,000m and produced one of the standout performances of the year, clocking 8:11.56 to set a new African and Diamond League record and move to second on the all-time list.
Back over 5,000m in Rome in June, she ran a meeting record of 14:03.69, before producing a career-defining performance at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on 5 July.
There, Chebet made history by becoming the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier in the 5,000m, clocking 13:58.06 in a race that underlined her extraordinary range and endurance.
She later secured her place on Kenya’s team for the World Championships by finishing third in the 10,000m at the national trials held at the Ulinzi Sports Complex in July.
In August, she showcased her versatility once again by running a personal best of 3:54.73 to finish second in the 1,500m at the Silesia Diamond League, her first appearance at the distance since 2023.
Chebet’s season peaked at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where she delivered the moment she had chased for years. She won gold in the 5,000m in 14:54.36, holding off Faith Kipyegon’s late surge, before completing the double with victory in the 10,000m.
In doing so, Chebet became the first woman to simultaneously hold Olympic and World titles in both distances, matching Vivian Cheruiyot’s 2011 feat and joining Britain’s Mo Farah as the only athletes to achieve the rare “double-double.”
Her performances earned her the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Female Athlete of the Year award for 2025, while she was also honoured with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Kabianga in recognition of her impact on the sport.
Chebet had been expected to chase another slice of history by attempting to win a third consecutive World Cross Country title, a feat achieved by only two women: Norway’s Grete Waitz (1978–1981) and American Lyn Jennings (1990–1992). However, her decision to step away puts that pursuit on hold.
Her choice follows a path taken by several Kenyan greats who paused their careers to start families before returning to the sport.
Edna Kiplagat, Mary Keitany and Hellen Obiri all stepped away to have children and later reclaimed their places at the top of world athletics.
Faith Kipyegon offers perhaps the clearest example. After winning Olympic gold in Rio in 2016 and the world 1,500m title in 2017, Kipyegon took time off to give birth to her daughter Alyn in 2018.
She returned to retain her Olympic title in Tokyo in 2020, completed a historic Olympic hat-trick in Paris in 2024, and reclaimed and defended her world titles in Oregon (2022), Budapest (2023) and Tokyo (2025).
