Eliud Kipchoge reveals future plans: Racing for Olympic history and the fifth major marathon star
Kipchoge's goal to win all six major marathons hit a snag in April when he placed a surprising sixth at the Boston Marathon. Two months later, the Olympic champion and world record holder has shaken off the disappointment of that race and shifted his focus to becoming the first marathon runner to win three Olympic titles.
Athletics
Marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge knows the best way to get over disappointment: Make a goal that is even bigger than your last
Kenya's double Olympic champion and marathon world record holder finished a disappointing sixth in the Boston Marathon in April, but has not let that result dampen his spirits. Instead, he has shifted his focus to making Olympic history at Paris 2024 where he will aim to become the first athlete to win three Olympic marathon titles.
"The priority now is to focus on the Olympics and win a third time. The other (challenges) will come later," Kipchoge told AFP at Kaptagat training camp in Kenya.
Kipchoge's current record of two titles puts him alongside other marathon greats, Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila, who won the Olympic marathon in 1960 and 1964, and East Germany's Waldemar Cierpinski, winner at the 1976 and 1980 Games.
Kipchoge is no stranger to making headlines with his bold ambitions. Whether it is breaking world records, becoming the first man to go under the mythical two-hour barrier, or wining Olympic gold – twice – the Kenyan is eager to show other athletes what is possible.
"I want to be an inspiration and I trust my breaking the world record twice is an inspiration to many young people," Kipchoge said of his training partners. "I trust they will want more and even beat my records."
Kipchoge: No dwelling on 'cancelled checks'
One of the qualities that makes Kipchoge such a tough opponent is his ability to bounce back from disappointments. His reaction to the sixth-place finish in the 2023 Boston Marathon is proof of that.
The running legend was making his debut appearance in the event having won 15 out of the 18 sanctioned marathons he had raced.
And he started at a good pace, but 30 kilometres into the run, his upper left leg started to hurt. Instead of pulling out, Kipchoge made the decision to slow to a comfortable pace "just to finish", he revealed later at a press conference. In the end, he finished the race in 2:09:23, which is the slowest marthon time in his career.
A day after the race, however, Kipchoge was already looking beyond the disappointing results.
“Yesterday is a canceled check,” he said at a press conference. “Today is cash. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Let us forget about the canceled checks. Let us talk of the cash and the promissory notes.”
Two months later, the athlete reflected again on that spring day and how he moved past it.
“I was really a huge disappointment when you flash back to everything you have been doing for some months. But the beauty of sport is that today you are up and tomorrow you are down," Kipchoge told Citius Mag at a training camp in Kenya. "After sixth place in Boston, I just relaxed, sat at the table and went back to try and think of what has happened.”
Kipchoge and the quest for Six Star victories
The 2023 Boston Marathon was not the first time things did not work out for Kipchoge. He arrived at the 2020 London Marathon as the defending champion and with a streak of 10 consecutive marathon victories only to finish eighth on a cold and rainy day.
What made the Boston Marathon disappointment more acute, however, is that it remains one of the two major marathons he has yet to win. He has never run the New York Marathon.
One of Kipchoge's key career goals is to earn the Six Stars medal, which World Marathon Majors offers to runners who have completed all six major marathons: Boston, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, London and Chicago. Considering Kipchoge's ambitious nature, however, the goal is more than simply to complete the races. He wants to become the first man in history to win all six.
While Boston was a setback on this path, the goal remains unchanged, Kipchoge assured reporters at a training camp in Kenya. He is currently preparing for his final marathon of the year and is expecting to devide at the end of July if he will race in Berlin, Chicago or New York.
“The Six Stars is still the dream. We’re still seeing what will happen but it’s still a dream," Kipchoge said. "I’m trying to complete the sixth one before I call off the sport.”
Kipchoge is relying on creative coaching techniques to reach that target.
His coach Patrick Sang emphases the element of surprise in his training plans to prepare Kipchoge for the different situations he may encounter on the marathon route. Keeping the workout plan a secret, Sang's athletes only find out what they need to do when they start the session.
“I think it’s really beneficial so that when you have free time and your mind will sleep well. You’ll have a good night actually not knowing what will happen tomorrow," Kipchoge said. "In the track, you talk when you’re finishing your strides and then that’s the programme. You do it and come back and do it the next day again.”
Technology is another important aspect of Kipchoge's training regime, and he embraces the newest developments in that field.
“I love change. I always change immediately. I think I am a fan of change if anything comes in. Whether that’s technology, I want to be the first one to crack and work on it," he said. "For the last 10 years, technology has grown and many things have changed but it has handled me well.”