Marathon, Men

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge had once been a premier track runner, primarily over 5,000 metres, winning gold in that event at the 2003 World Championships, silver medals at the 2008 Olympics and 2007 Worlds, and a bronze at the 2004 Olympics. After failing to make the 2012 Kenyan Olympic team, he moved to the road and quickly became almost unbeatable at the marathon. From 2013-16 he won six major city marathons, winning all except the 2013 Berlin Marathon, and breaking 2-05 four times. He came to Rio as a clear favorite, but Olympic marathon favorites have not usually fared well.

The heat and humidity on the last day of the Olympics kept the pace slow, as is usual in the Olympic marathon. At 30K Kipchoge picked up the pace and strung out the field, leaving only two runners by his side with 10 km remaining, American Galen Rupp, silver medallist in the London 10K, who had only run his first marathon at the US Olympic Trials, and Ethiopian Feyisa Lilesa. Kipchoge surged again at 35K and Rupp could not maintain the pace, with Lilesa struggling to stay close. With 6 km remaining Kipchoge was alone, the gold medal decided if disaster did not strike. It did not and the Kenyan won the gold by 1:10 over Lilesa, who was 11 seconds ahead of Rupp, who was closing the margin, but ran out of ground.

In early May 2017, Kipchoge ran a trial race, staged by Nike, in an attempt to break the 2-hour barrier for the marathon. The two other participants in the race were Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa and Eritrean Zersenay Tadesse. The event was held on the Monza race track in Italy, with designated pacers entering the event planned stages. The runners ran behind a pace vehicle, designed to keep them on the ideal pace, but it also provided drafting protection, one of the factors keeping the event from being eligible for record consideration. Drinks were handed to the runners, as needed, by helpers on bicycles, another move that made it ineligible for a record. Finally, all three marathoners wore newly designed, special Nike shoes, and there was some question about their legality for record purposes. In the end, only Kipchoge came close to the barrier, running a “fastest on record” time of 2-00:25, although it was not considered for a world best time, because of the problems noted above.

By the late 2010s Kipchoge had stamped himself as the dominant marathoner in the world and many considered him the greatest ever, perhaps rivalled only by Abebe Bikila. From 2013-19 Kipchoge ran 13 marathons, winning all but the 2013 Berlin race, in which he finished second. At Berlin in 2018 he set a world record of 2-01:39, and in 2019, at the London Marathon, his winning time of 2-02:37 was the second fastest marathon ever.