Joshua Cheptegei: What motivates an athlete who has won almost everything?

What do you get the person who has everything? The question is often rolled out in pre-Christmas articles for shoppers stumped for gift ideas for their nearest and dearest.

Yet in some ways it is apt for an athlete like Joshua Cheptegei, who at 26 years old has won Olympic gold in the 5000m, two world 10,000m titles and also set world records in both of those distances (12:35.36 in the 5000m and 26:11.00 in the 10,000m).

What more could you offer someone who has achieved so much in such a short career? And what is it that motivates the Ugandan to continue through the hard training to reach for further future goals?

“It’s the dream,” Cheptegei revealed in an interview on the Citius Mag podcast when speaking about his reason for getting up to run every morning. “The dream about becoming one of the best athletes in the world.”

It’s hard to argue that Cheptegei doesn’t already hold that status. As well as the aforementioned accolades, he also owns an Olympic 10,000m silver from Tokyo 2020, the 2019 Diamond League title, Commonwealth Games 5,000m and 10,000m golds, and two World Cross Country Championships titles.

However, Cheptegei’s idea of greatness hinges not only on titles but on longevity.

“You don’t have to show it only once,” he says. “You have to keep the consistency about what you want in life. You have to be the kind of guy who goes after the records and championship medals and wants to still be hungry before.”

Joshua Cheptegei: Inspired by the greats and motivated by setbacks

This idea of consistency is perhaps why Cheptege is so enamored with his running teammate Eliud Kipchoge. 

The 38-year-old Kenyan marathon world record holder first competed in the Olympics at Athens 2004, winning bronze in the 5000m.

Now almost 20 years later, he has a decade of marathons under his belt and is widely considered the greatest 42.195km runner in history. 

Cheptegei may also have a trophy cabinet full of victories behind him but he still sees himself as a student of the sport, eager to learn from the legends of athletics. 

“I am able to learn from the great incredible athletes from the world, especially one of my teammates Eliud Kipchoge,” he said, before recalling a moment you can tell he treasures dearly to this day. 

“One time when I was still a young boy and I was training in a training camp in Kaptagat in 2015, I wanted to learn from him. I spoke to him, so he spoke to me and gave me words of wisdom.”

Whatever motivation Kipchoge offered Cheptegei, the Ugandan has run with it. 

After a first Olympics at Rio 2016 where he finished 8th and 6th in the 5000m and 10,000m respectively, his last five years have been a sea of gold. 

He has landed on the top step of the podium six times between 2018 and 2022, with the last of those titles coming at the World Athletics Championships of 2022 where he won gold in the 10,000m. 

It’s not always been plain sailing, as well. Injuries in 2022 meant that he didn’t reach the World Championships in the best shape of his life. 

However, like many champions, he takes a stoic, almost philosophical view of those challenges. 

“I’ve had setbacks, it’s part of the sport. You have to accept them in order to have the right mindset,” he says.

Joshua Cheptegei: Stepping out of the shadows of Bekele

Another role model Cheptegei has followed closely throughout his career is distance-running legend Kenenisa Bekele. 

“He really inspires me a lot,” he said of Bekele to Olympics.com. “I dream of becoming great like him. I know I still have a lot of steps to take."

In some ways, Cheptegei’s career has followed a similar path to Bekele’s, including the 5000m and 10,000m world records that the Ugandan took from his idol. 

But when asked what he feels the difference is between the times when Bekele and Kipchoge ran on track and the landscape of today, Cheptegei points to an increase in competition among today’s top runners. 

“When you look at the times of Kenesisa (Bekele) you really just had three or four guys [who were] consistent. So if I am among those four guys, I just have to be average to be on the podium. But now we are dealing with incredible athletes who are running crazy 12 [minute] 40s.”

With Paris 2024, Cheptegei has the opportunity to replicate the Olympic achievements of Bekele. 

It would take a 5000m/10,000m double to equal the Ethiopian’s total of three golds, but a healthy, in-form Cheptegei has already proven he has the talent to reach those giddy heights. 

First up comes a season in which he is aiming to earn a third - and perhaps even fourth - world championship gold before the tantalising prospect of him perhaps chasing another of his dreams: the marathon. 

And as he told us even before the last Olympics, just winning marathons may not be enough for a man who is motivated by dreams to be among the best of all time. 

“Becoming a world record holder in the 5000m, 10,000m and later the half marathon and maybe also the full marathon,” he said of his future goals. 

Half of those dreams have already come true. The rest are something to truly look forward to.