The legendary long-distance runner and Olympic medalist, who was seeking his third consecutive Olympic gold medal, withdrew midway through the men’s marathon at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, hinting at the possibility of retirement.
Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge withdrew about 18 miles into the 26.2-mile race, having run about an hour and 40 seconds. Olympics.com said:.
Kipchoge, who topped the podium in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, is the only runner in history to win consecutive Olympic gold medals in the marathon.
Saturday’s race was a chance for Kipchoge to try to win an unprecedented third consecutive title, but he ultimately withdrew from the race due to side discomfort, Olympic.com reported.
“It’s a difficult time for me,” Kipchoge acknowledged after withdrawing from competition.
“This is my worst marathon. I have never DNF’d (failed to finish),” the runner said. “That’s life. Like a boxer, I’ve been beaten, I’ve won, I’ve come second, eighth, 10th, fifth, but this time I didn’t finish. That’s life,” he added.
The 39-year-old Kipchoge also indicated he would not compete at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“People will look at me differently. It might motivate people, but I’m not running,” he said.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I need to go back. [home]”You sit back and look back at 21 years of high-level running and realize you have to evolve and do other things.”
Kipchoge, 39, is widely considered the greatest marathon runner of all time, and on Saturday he led the pack for the first nine miles before beginning to slow on the hills of the course. Runner’s World reports.
According to the media, by the time he arrived in Versailles and headed back towards Paris, Kipchoge was more than a minute behind the leader and was not even in the top 50.
“I felt pain in my back around 20km into the race so I decided to drop out without finishing,” he said of his decision to withdraw from the race.
“The hills didn’t affect me at all. It was the pain that stopped me.”
Kipchoge famously won 10 consecutive marathons from 2014 to 2019, before finishing eighth in the 2020 London Marathon, according to Runner’s World magazine.
He has twice broken the world record in the marathon (both in Berlin) and is the only man to have broken the two-hour mark in the non-record marathon, in Vienna in 2019.
In addition to his marathon gold, Kipchoge also won a bronze medal in the 5,000 meters in 2004 and a silver medal in 2008.
The gold medal on Saturday went to Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, who crossed the line in 2 hours, 6 minutes and 26 seconds, setting an Olympic record.
The 32-year-old Tola won the New York Marathon in 2023.
Belgium’s Basil Abdi won silver in Paris, while Kenya’s Benson Kipruto won bronze in his Olympic debut.
Kipruto dedicated his medal to fellow Kenyan runner Kelvin Kiptum, 24, who died in a car accident in February after breaking the marathon world record in Chicago in 2023.
Ten runners dropped out on Saturday, leaving a total of 72 runners to finish the race.
The women’s marathon is scheduled for Sunday morning.
With post wire
