Kenya’s golden girl Beatrice Chebet on her journey to becoming the best distance runner in the world
The double Olympic distance champion looks ahead to new challenges after an enthralling season in Paris and becoming the third-fastest woman ever over 5000m.
Beatrice Chebet is not one to shy away from a challenge.
Inspired by her grandmother to take on running, she set ridiculously high standards for herself and a mile-long to-do-list with the aim of becoming the best.
In just over two years, she has nearly checked everything on her list.
The first woman in history to run under 29 minutes over the 10,000m, became the first Kenyan to win the double-distance Olympic gold medals at the same Games. The three-time World Cross Country winner is also the fastest woman on the road over 5km.
Significant career achievements, and it’s only just beginning.
“I always have faith and belief in myself,” the first time Olympian told Olympics.com in Paris 2024 after winning the 5000m.
“I had never won a track title. But after breaking the 10,000m world record in Eugene at the Kenyan Trials for the Olympics, I felt unusually strong and motivated. That’s when I decided, 'I want to double in Paris'.”
Pulling off a rare double gold in distance running from highly competitive fields capped an incredible three years of her running career.
Chebet’s journey has now become bigger than just winning medals, she’s on a mission “to restore Kenya’s glory in women’s track running”.
Beatrice Chebet's shared tears of glory with granny
There were tears of joy after Team Kenya's welcome on return home to Nairobi after the Paris Olympics. Chebet probably cried the most when she was reunited with her grandmother.
Growing up in the tea capital of Kenya, Kericho, in the highlands west of the Rift Valley, she liked running, but it was her granny Pauline Lang’at who provided the support and the encouragement to stay on course.
Lang’at, who took her grandchild to her first Athletics club in 2016, was among hundreds of people who packed the main airport to meet the freshly minted Olympic champions. It was an emotional reunion as they shared tears of joy.
“I am lost for words when I look at where I have reached, when I look or talk to my grandmother,” Chebet told the Daily Nation on the role her grandmother has played in her career.
“This is the first time for me to return to Kenya and meet such a [huge crowd] waiting to receive me at the airport.”
Chebet has always been content flying under the radar despite producing three golds at the World Cross Country Championships, the first as a junior in the U20 race, before defending her senior title earlier in the year in Belgrade.
After missing out on the world 5000m title in Budapest last year, where she settled for bronze after silver in Eugene in 2022, the roads offered the 24-year-old a chance at redemption.
She succeeded in becoming the holder of women's 5km title at the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga last year. And with a steely resolve, she set a new women’s world 5km record of 14:13 in Barcelona on the last day of 2023.
A journey bigger than personal track glory
All these further fuelled her desire to make history.
She broke the 10,000m world record in Eugene, where she qualified for her first Olympics, promising to herself that she would not only compete, but would target double distance gold.
“I am an Olympic champion?!” she posed in an interview with Olympics.com shortly after edging out compatriot Faith Kipyegon and Sifan Hassan for the 5000m in Paris.
“I had never won a track title as a senior… this is why this means a lot to me. I will never forget this gold.”
But her journey in Paris was bigger than her personal goals.
Her double triumph made her the third woman in history to win Olympic titles in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the same Games.
“This Olympic gold is not just for me, but for Kenya. Going into the race, I knew that it was going to be a big race, a historic one," said Chebet who won her first global title at the age of 18 at the world U20 5000m in 2018.
“I always have faith and belief in myself. And here I am, I have made history as the first Kenyan Olympic champion. I am out here showing what we do best as Kenyans, win!”
She’s now targeting Tsegay’s 5,000m world record of 14:00:21, a mark she closed in on with her 14:05.92, the third-fastest time ever at the 2024 Diamond League in Zurich.
Chebet plans to cap an undefeated season at 5,000m with another trophy at the Diamond League Final in Brussels. It would be a fitting end to what has been an enthralling season for the runner nicknamed the ‘smiling assassin’, that is, if there are no more world record quests before the year is out.