"Its my huge expectation to win the Olympics for the third time" - Eliud Kipchoge

Former world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge has reiterated his intent to win a third Olympic crown when he lines up in Paris in August, and left no room for retirement talk, at least pending a glance into his bucket list.

The 39-year-old, present during Nike’s unveiling of Team Kenya’s new kit at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games in Paris on Thursday, will be seeking to steer away from Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila and East Germany's Waldemar Cierpinski - the only athletes, alongside Kipchoge, to have won two Olympic gold medals in the marathon - when he goes for his third title following successes in 2016 and 2020.

Speaking to Reuters, the reigning Berlin Marathon champion said it was his “huge expectation to win the Olympics for the third time," dismissing any questions about his recent form leading to the race.

Kipchoge’s last competitive appearance on the road was on Sunday 3 March, when he finished 10th in the Tokyo Marathon.

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About the result, he said: “I think I just got tired ... I don't know what happened but it's life, it's sport, it's the beauty of sport."

With many believing that this year’s Olympic Games will act as his swansong in a career that has spanned two decades, Kipchoge responded saying: “If you can convince me that the moment I will be crossing the finishing line the whole world has become a running world then I will retire."

On possibly making an appearance at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, he added: “You know in Kenya we say you don't chase two rabbits at a time, you will miss all of them. You chase one. So the rabbit of the Olympic Games is what I'm chasing now. After that I go back to the drawing board, see what's in my bucket list and start again to chase the next."

One absentee in Kenya’s marathon team named last week will be Kelvin Kiptum, who tragically lost his life in a motor vehicle accident in February.

Given he was the man that went above his previous record time of 2:01:09, Kipchoge spoke of the potential of higher marks being set adding: “We have a lot of talented athletes ... first is to dare to think to break, secondly is to dare to do it. I have shown them the way."