Eliud Kipchoge becomes mentor of U20 athletics refugees
The Kenyan marathon champion will impart sports and life knowledge to young refugees as they train for the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships.
Athletics
Two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge will mentor the U20 World Athletics Athlete Refugee Team starting in January 2024.
The Kenyan athletics star will pass on his knowledge of the sport, as well as broader life skills and inspiration to the young generation as they train towards the World Athletics U20 Championships Lima 24.
The announcement that Kipchoge will serve as a mentor for the young refugees coincides with the signing of the Multistakeholder Pledge on Sport for Inclusion and Protection of Refugees. More than 100 organisations that are part of the Global Refugee Forum 2023 signed the pledge, including World Athletics.
The Global Refugee Forum is held every four years with the latest edition taking place in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2023.
The World Athletics Athlete Refugee Team was founded in 2016 and is made up of athletes who have fled conflict, violence and injustice in their origin countries. Currently it is the world’s only year-round, full-time refugee team programme.
The team made its competitive debut at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team. The team’s athletes also take part in most World Athletics Series events.
The U20 branch of the team is a pilot formed in 2022 with the objective of training athletes for the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships. The team's athletes are partly based at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya and are coached by Kenya’s 800m world champion Janeth Jepkosgei and assistant coach Arcade Arakaza, who is a refugee from Burundi.