Why Poland holds a special place in Faith Kipyegon’s heart

Triple Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon has revealed why Poland will always hold a special place in her heart.

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The scene is set in Poland, 15 years ago, when a young Kipyegon ran her very first international race barefoot. She had no spikes, no medals, no records, only a dream that one day she would rise to the top.

On Saturday, 16 August, at the Silesia Diamond League, she returned to the same soil, this time as a global icon. She stormed to a breathtaking 8:07.04 in the 3,000m, smashing the African record and rewriting history once again.

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For someone who had not raced the distance in more than a decade, Kipyegon looked untouchable.

She began cautiously, sitting in third place after the first 400m as Australia’s Jessica Hull and American Sage Hurta-Klecker pushed the pace. By the halfway point, she surged to the front and never looked back.

When she crossed her familiar 1,500m mark, she entered uncharted grounds, but instead of faltering, she soared, her stride only growing stronger.

With one lap to go, Kipyegon unleashed her trademark kick, powerful, smooth, devastating. The clock stopped at 8:07.04. History had been rewritten once again.

“I am so grateful to be in Silesia. It all started through a video when I met a Polish coach in Kenya. He joined us for a run and asked me whether I’d be happy to run at the Silesia Diamond League.

I told him, ‘Yeah, if I come back to Poland, where I ran barefoot in my first international competition, it will be so much fun,” Kipyegon said.

Faith Kipyegon shatters multiple records after first 3000m race in a decade

Kipyegon’s 2025 season has been nothing short of extraordinary. In April, she opened her campaign by winning the 1,000m in a World Leading 2:29.21, just shy of breaking Svetlana Masterkova’s 28-year-old world record.

In June, she came agonizingly close to rewriting history in the mile at the Stade Sebastian Charlety in Paris. She clocked 4:06.42, just seconds short of the elusive sub-four-minute barrier.

While the mark was not ratified as a world record due to race conditions, it was still the fastest ever recorded over the distance by a woman.

A week later, she stunned the world again at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, becoming the first woman in history to dip under 3:49 in the 1,500m. Her 3:48.68 smashed her world record set in Florence in 2023.

And now, she has capped that brilliance with her historic 3,000m record in Poland.

Kipyegon has made it clear that her career is not just about medals and times, but about inspiring others.

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“I would love to see young girls and women out there pushing themselves and doing what they have never done in their lives.

For instance, with Breaking4, I told Noah Lyles it was like a nightmare to go out there and dream of empowering the next generation,” she said.

At the Tokyo World Championships, Kipyegon will compete in the 1,500m and the 5,000m races.