Faith Kipyegon

Kipyegon at the 2012 World Junior Championships

At age 16, Faith Kipyegon ran in the 2010 World Cross Country Championships women's junior race. She came in 5th place individually and won the gold medal with her team.

She participated in the 2011 World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria and won the gold medal in the junior race both with her team and individually. A few months afterward, she competed at the World Youth Championships in the 1500 m winning a gold medal ahead of three Ethiopian runners with a time of 4m 9.48s.[3]

At the 2012 World Junior Championships in Barcelona, she won a gold medal in her signature event way ahead of the field with a time of 4:04.96; the Serbian Amela Terzić and Ethiopian Senbere Teferi took 2nd and 3rd respectively.[4] The 18-year-old qualified for the London Olympics, but at the event failed to advance to the semi-finals.[5]

At the beginning of the 2013 season, Kipyegon won the junior individual race at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland. On 10 May, at the Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix in Doha, she established a new Kenyan Record in the 1500 m with a time of 3:56.98, facing the Swedish runner Abeba Aregawi. In August, at the World Championships in Moscow, she came fifth in the final in a time of 4:05.08.

In 2014, she won a gold medal in the 4×1500 m relay at the first IAAF World Relays in Nassau, Bahamas, along with Mercy Cherono, Irene Jelagat and Hellen Obiri. The Kenyan team, ahead of the United States and Australia, improved the World Record time to 16:33.58. The same year, she added a gold in her specialist event at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland.

On 25 August 2015, Kipyegon won a silver at the World Championships in Beijing, finishing second to world record holder Genzebe Dibaba in the 1500 m event. On 11 September, at the Diamond League finale in Brussels, she won the mile in 4:16.71, beating Sifan Hassan, who finished in 4:18.20,[6] in the final stretch.

In August 2016, she competed at the Rio Olympic Games, where she won her event in 4:08.92 with a 56.8-second final lap.[7][8]

In 2017, she earned the Diamond League 1500 m title, winning three races in Shanghai, Eugene, and Brussels. Her best success of this year was the first place at the London World Championships, becoming only the third woman in history to win both the Olympic and World Championships 1500 m race. She clocked 4:02.59 while three next women also recorded times below 4m 3s.

Kipyegon gave birth to her first child in 2018, returning in 2019 to win silver medal in her signature event at the World Championships, where she set a Kenyan record of 3:54.22. Sifan Hassan came first in 3:51.95.

In 2021, she improved her national record twice at the Diamond League meetings. On 10 June, she ran 3:53.91 at the Rome Golden Gala meet, staged exceptionally in Florence, to finish second just behind Sifan Hassan, who timed 3:53.63. On 9 July at the Monaco Herculis, Kipyegon stopped the clock at a world-leading 3m 51.07s – the 4th fastest time in history – outsprinting Hassan in the home straight by 2.5 s.[1]

At the women's 1500 m final of the 2020 Olympic Games, Kipyegon overtook Hassan in the last 400m to win her second Olympic gold medal in the event and set a new olympic record with a time of 3 minutes 53.11 seconds. [9]

Kipyegon won a 2021 Diamond League title at the Zürich Weltklasse.

• Diamond League champion (1500 m): 2017[11]
• Diamond League champion (1500 m): 2021[12]
  • 2015 (1) (One Mile): Brussels Memorial Van Damme
  • 2016 [3]; (2) (1500 m): Shanghai Diamond League, Eugene, OR Prefontaine Classic; (1) (One Mile): Oslo Bislett Games
  • 2017 (3) (1500 m): Shanghai Diamond League, Eugene Prefontaine Classic, Brussels Memorial Van Damme
  • 2019 (1) (1500 m): Eugene Prefontaine Classic in Palo Alto, CA
  • 2020 [3]; (2) (1000 m): Monaco Herculis, Brussels Memorial Van Damme; (1) (800 m): Doha Diamond League
  • 2021 [4]; (1) (800 m): Doha Diamond League; (3) (1500 m): Monaco Herculis, Eugene Prefontaine Classic, Zürich Weltklasse