Paris 2024: Peres Jepchirchir in line to become first woman to retain marathon Olympic gold

Despite Kenya’s hegemony in both men’s and women’s marathons, Peres Jepchirchir is the second Kenyan woman to clinch gold at the Olympics and will be looking to become the first to defend their title.

The rare victories have only been achieved by Jemima Sumgong and Jepchirchir herself after dazzling the streets of Sapporo, Japan in the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics to clinch gold.

Jepchirchir beat fellow Kenyan and the then world record holder Brigid Kosgei in the closing stages of the race, going on to win in 2 hours, 27 minutes, and 20 seconds.

The 30-year-old will be hoping to become the first woman to defend her Olympic title since the women's marathon was included in the global games in 1984.

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She will be in the fine company of Hellen Obiri and Sharon Lokedi after last edition’s runners up Brigid Kosgei pulled out of the games after suffering an injury.

Personal life-

Jepchirchir’s story is one of perseverance as she had to overcome a challenging upbringing to beat the odds and curve out a path in long distance running.

As if losing her mother at the age of two was not enough, she had to live in abject poverty with her father having three wives and 24 children.

The limited resources forced her to relocate to her uncle’s household where she had to walk over five kilometres to Sambut Primary School to get education.

Traversing the long distance was still not enough to encourage her to pursue an athletics career as she opted to study hard in class, viewing education as her gateway from poverty.

Her dream of becoming a nurse was killed when she dropped out of Kosirai Girls High School in Nandi due to lack of school fees.

Early career-

Jepchirchir had an unusual path to long distance running, unlike most athletes who opt to start with competitive athletics before making the switch to road running.

After a few races back in 2013 including two in South Africa and one in her home country in Kisumu, Kenya where she finished third, Jepchirchir graduated to cross country running.

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A year later she enrolled for the Kenyan Cross Country Championships where she finished behind current 1500m record holder Faith Kipyegon.

Her promising performances did not go unnoticed as she was snapped up by Italian athletics agent Gianni Demadonna and went on to win the Le Lion Half Marathon, and the Marseille-Cassis Classique Internationale.

Her debut in the marathon did not follow the script of the road races as she failed to complete the 2015 London Marathon which led to her resuming road running where she was a seasoned athlete.

Career milestone-

Adding to the gold marathon bagged in Tokyo 2020, Jepchirchir has also conquered the London, Boston and New York Marathons and has also managed a third place finish in London back in 2023.

The London Marathon victory back in April this year was special as she managed to set a world record time of 2:16:16.

Olympic qualification-

Athletics Kenya (AK) named Jepchirchir as part of the three women who will represent Kenya based on their impressive form in recent marathons.

Preparation for Olympics-

The London Marathon was the perfect preparation for Jepchirchir for the Olympics Marathon and winning the event will boost her confidence of retaining her crown at the games.

Having won in Boston, arguably one of the toughest courses due to its hilly nature, albeit in 2022. She will be one of the gold medal prospects with Paris also proving to have steep gradients.

Competition at Olympics-

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Aside from her compatriots Sharon Lokedi and Hellen Obiri, Jepchirchir will also face stern competition from current world record holder Tigist Asefa, the Ethiopian duo of Amane Beriso Shankule, and Alemu Megertu, not forgetting Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands.

Medal prospects-

With Jepchirchir being in the form of her life, nothing short of retaining her gold is expected from the world number in women’s marathon according to World Athletics’ rankings.