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Tegla Loroupe

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Tegla Loroupe
Loroupe at the 2016 Olympics
Personal information
NationalityKenyan
Born (1973-05-09) 9 May 1973 (age 51)
Kutomwony, Kenya
Height156 cm (5 ft 1 in) [1]
Weight40 kg (88 lb)
WebsiteTegla Peace
Sport
SportLong-distance running
Event(s)3000 meters, 5000 meters, 10,000 meters, Marathon
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals2000 Sydney
Personal bests3000 meters: 8:30.95 [2]


5000 meters: 14:45.95 [2]
10,000 meters: 30:32.03 [2]
Marathon: 2:20:43 [2]

List of world records in athletics
Medal record
Representing  Kenya
World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 1995 Gothenburg 10,000 m
Bronze medal – third place 1999 Seville 10,000 m
World Half Marathon Championships
Gold medal – first place 1997 Košice Individual
Gold medal – first place 1998 Zürich Individual
Gold medal – first place 1998 Zürich Team
Gold medal – first place 1999 Palermo Individual
Gold medal – first place 1999 Palermo Team
Silver medal – second place 1997 Košice Team
Bronze medal – third place 1993 Brussels Individual
New York City Marathon
Gold medal – first place 1994 New York City Marathon
Gold medal – first place 1995 New York City Marathon

Tegla Chepkite Loroupe (born 9 May 1973) is a Kenyan long-distance track and road runner. She is also a global spokeswoman for peace, women's rights and education. Loroupe holds the world records for 25 and 30 kilometers and previously held the world marathon record. She was the first African woman to hold the marathon World Record, which she held from 19 April 1998 until 30 September 2001. She is the three-time World Half-Marathon champion. Loroupe was also the first woman from Africa to win the New York City Marathon, which she has won twice. She has won marathons in London, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Berlin and Rome.

In 2016, she was the person organizing the Refugee Team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.[3]

Biography

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Tegla Loroupe was born in Kapsait village in the Lelan division of West Pokot District. It is situated in the Great Rift Valley, approximately 600 kilometres north of Nairobi. Her father and mother are from the Pokot tribe, a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting parts of northern Kenya, eastern Uganda and southern Ethiopia.[3]

Loroupe was told by her father that she was useless and her career might be babysitting.[3] She grew up with 24 siblings. The Pokots being a polygamous culture, her father had four wives. She spent her childhood working fields, tending cattle and looking after younger brothers and sisters.

At the age of six, Loroupe started school at Kapsait Elementary school; she had to run ten kilometers to and from school every morning. At school, she became aware of her potential as an athlete when she won races held over a distance of 800 or 1500 meters against much older students. She decided to pursue a career as a runner. However, she was not supported by anyone but her mother.

Loroupe in 2007 at a meet in Schortens, Germany.

The Kenyan athletics federation, Athletics Kenya, did not support her at first, thinking Loroupe too small and too thin. However, after she won a prestigious cross country barefoot race in 1988, this changed. She began to train to compete internationally the following year, earning her first pair of running shoes in 1989, which she wore only for particularly rough races. She was nominated for the junior race of the 1989 IAAF World Cross Country Championships finishing 28th. She competed again at the 1990 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, finishing 16th in the junior race.

In 1994 and 1998, Loroupe won the Goodwill Games over 10,000 metres, barefoot. Over the same distance she won bronze medals at the World Athletics Championships in 1995 and 1999.

In 1994, Loroupe ran her first major marathon in New York. Running against the world's strongest competition, she won. As a consequence she was idolised by many young people in Africa: at last, a woman champion to complement the many successful male runners. She won the New York City Marathon again in 1995 and finished 3rd in 1998.

Between 1997 and 1999, she won three world titles a row over the half marathon distance. She won Rotterdam Marathon three times between 1997 and 1999. She won Berlin Marathon in 1999 and finished second in 2001. She finished second at the 1999 Osaka International Ladies Marathon.

Loroupe won the Zevenheuvelenloop 15K race in the Netherland three times (1992, 1993 and 1998). She is a seven-time Egmond Half Marathon winner (1993–1998, 2000). She has won the Lisbon Half Marathon a record six times: 1994–1997, 1999 and 2000.[4] She has won the Tilburg road race, a five times (1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999), also a record number. She won the Paris Half Marathon in 1994 and 1998,[5] City-Pier-City Loop half marathon in the Hague in 1998,[6] and the Parelloop 10K in race in the Netherlands in 1999.[7]

During the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, favoured to win both the marathon and the 10,000 meters, she suffered from violent food poisoning the night before the race. Nevertheless, she fought through the marathon race, finishing 13th, then, the next day, ran the 10,000 metres, finishing 5th,[1] running barefoot in both races, a feat she later stated she achieved out of a sense of duty to all the people taking her as a bearer of hope in her home country. Until the end of 2001, she continued to suffer from various health problems.

In 2000, she won London Marathon and Rome City Marathon. She also won Lausanne Marathon in 2002, Cologne Marathon in 2003 and Leipzig Marathon in 2004.

Loroupe competed at the 2005 World Championships marathon race in Helsinki, Finland, but finished only 40th. In February 2006 she won the Hong Kong Half-Marathon. The same year she finished 5th in the Rotterdam Marathon and 2nd in the Venice Marathon. In 2007, she participated again the New York City Marathon, finishing 8th.

Loroupe's biggest successes include world records over 20, 25 and 30 kilometers as well as the past record over the marathon distance. She used to hold the One Hour running World record of 18,340 m set in Borgholzhausen, Germany, but the record was broken by Dire Tune of Ethiopia ten years later, in 2008 (new record 18,517 m).[8]

Goodwill

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In 2006, she was named a United Nations Ambassador of Sport by Secretary General Kofi Annan, together with Roger Federer, tennis champion from Switzerland, Elias Figueroa, Latin American soccer legend from Chile, and Katrina Webb paralympics gold medalist from Australia. She is an International Sports Ambassador for the IAAF, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and for UNICEF.

In 2003, Loroupe created an annual series of Peace Marathons sponsored by the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation "Peace Through Sports". Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ambassadors and government officials run with warriors and nomadic groups in her native Kenya, in Uganda and in Sudan, to bring peace to an area plagued by raiding warriors from battling tribes. In 2010 the Kenyan Government lauded her achievements as hundreds of warriors had laid down their weapons.[9]

She has established a school (Tegla Loroupe Peace Academy) and orphanage for children from the region in Kapenguria, a high-mountain town in north-west Kenya.

The 2006 Peace Marathon was held on 18 November 2006, in Kapenguria, Kenya. Two thousand warriors from six tribes competed. The next Peace Marathon was 15 November 2008 in Kapenguria, Kenya. National ambassadors to Kenya participated, together with the Prime Minister, and several Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Ugandan Ministers. The Peace Marathon has been held each year since then, with the exception of the past two Covid years. Winners of the races often begin professional training in long-distance running, or join the training team of ex-warriors.

In February 2007, she was named the Oxfam Ambassador of Sport and Peace to Darfur. In December 2006, she travelled with George Clooney, Joey Cheek, and Don Cheadle to Beijing, Cairo, and New York on a diplomatic mission to bring an end to violence in Darfur. She won the "Community Hero" category at the 2007 Kenyan Sports Personality of the Year awards.[10]

In November 2009, Tegla represented the Shoe4Africa team.[11] running the New York Marathon alongside founder Toby Tanser and actress Sarah Jones[12] finishing in 3:54:02.

Loroupe is a member of the 'Champions for Peace' club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organisation.[13]

As reported by Olympic news outlet Around the Rings, the IOC recognised six women, five from each continent and one to represent the world, for their achievements and their work to promote women's sport. Loroupe was awarded the world trophy.

In 2015 Loroupe became an Ambassador for the Homeless World Cup.[14]

In 2016, she was the Chef de Mission organizing the Refugee Team for the 2016 Summer Olympics.[3] At those games Loroupe was inducted into the Olympians for life project for her work in promoting peace.[15] In October 2016 Loroupe was awarded United Nations Person of the Year.[16]

International competitions

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Year Competition Venue Position Notes
Representing  Kenya
1992 Olympic Games Barcelona, Spain 17th 10,000 m
1993 World Championships Stuttgart, Germany 4th 10,000 m
1995 World Championships Gothenburg, Sweden 3rd 10,000 m
1996 Olympic Games Atlanta, United States 6th 10,000 m
1997 World Half Marathon Championships Košice, Slovakia 1st Individual
2nd Team
World Championships Gothenburg, Sweden 6th 10,000 m
1998 World Half Marathon Championships Zürich, Switzerland 1st Individual
1st Team
1999 World Half Marathon Championships Palermo, Italy 1st Individual
1st Team
World Championships Seville, Spain 3rd 10,000 m
2000 Olympic Games Sydney 13th Marathon
5th 10,000 m
2005 World Championships Helsinki, Finland 40th Marathon

Marathons

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Year Competition Venue Position Notes
1994 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 1st [17] Marathon
1995 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 1st [18] Marathon
1996 Boston Marathon Boston, United States 2nd [19] Marathon
1996 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 7th [20] Marathon
1997 Rotterdam Marathon Rotterdam, Netherlands 1st [21] Marathon
1997 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 7th [22] Marathon
1997 Osaka International Ladies Marathon Osaka, Japan 7th [23] Marathon
1998 Rotterdam Marathon Rotterdam, Netherlands 1st [24] Marathon
1998 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 3rd [25] Marathon
1999 Osaka International Ladies Marathon Osaka, Japan 2nd [26] Marathon
1999 Rotterdam Marathon Rotterdam, Netherlands 1st [27] Marathon
1999 Berlin Marathon Berlin, Germany 1st [28] Marathon
2000 Rome Marathon Rome, Italy 1st [29] Marathon
2000 London Marathon London, England 1st [30] Marathon
2000 Sydney Marathon Sydney, Australia 13th [31] Marathon
2000 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 6th [32] Marathon
2001 London Marathon London, England 8th [33] Marathon
2001 Berlin Marathon Berlin, Germany 2nd [34] Marathon
2002 Nagoya Women's Marathon Nagoya, Japan 7th [35] Marathon
2002 Lausanne Marathon Lausanne, Switzerland 1st [36] Marathon
2003 Köln Marathon Cologne, Germany 1st [37] Marathon
2004 Leipzig Marathon Leipzig, Germany 1st [38] Marathon
2004 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 11th [39] Marathon
2005 London Marathon London, England 11th [40] Marathon
2005 World Athletics Championships Helsinki, Finland 40th [41] Marathon
2006 Rotterdam Marathon Rotterdam, Netherlands 5th [42] Marathon
2006 Venice Marathon Venice, Italy 2nd [43] Marathon
2006 Mumbai Marathon Mumbai, India 6th [44] Marathon
2007 The Greatest Race on Earth Various 7th [45] Marathon
2007 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 8th [46] Marathon
2007 Las Vegas Marathon Las Vegas, United States 3rd [47] Marathon
2008 Nagano Marathon Nagano, Japan 12th [48] Marathon
2009 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 2353rd [49] Marathon
2011 Copenhagen Marathon Copenhagen, Denmark 2nd [50] Marathon
2011 New York City Marathon New York City, United States 30th [51] Marathon

References

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  1. ^ a b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Tegla Loroupe". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "TEGLA LOROUPE". International Association of Athletics Federations. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d Tegla Loroupe gives Refugee Olympians A Lesson in Hope, Jere Longmam. 4 August 2016, NYTimes, Retrieved 11 September 2016
  4. ^ Lisbon Half Marathon winners. Arrs.net (22 March 2016). Retrieved on 11 September 2016.
  5. ^ Paris Half Marathon – List of Winners. Arrs.net (7 March 2016). Retrieved on 11 September 2016.
  6. ^ City-Pier-City Half Marathon – List of winners. Arrs.net (4 August 2016). Retrieved on 11 September 2016.
  7. ^ Arrs.net: List of Parelloop winners
  8. ^ IAAF, 12 June 2008: Robles 12.87 World Record in Ostrava! – IAAF World Athletics Tou
  9. ^ Obare, Osinde (14 November 2010). "Loroupe seduces 700 Pokot warriors to give up guns for peace". The Standard. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
  10. ^ SOYA Awards – 2007 winners. Soyaawards.com. Retrieved on 11 September 2016.
  11. ^ Fidelman, Brian (2 April 2018). "THE ROVING RUNNER; In Central Park, With an Accent on Training". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  12. ^ "Sarah Runs NYC Marathon". Sarah Jones. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  13. ^ Peace and Sport. Peace-sport.org (1 September 2015). Retrieved on 11 September 2016.
  14. ^ "Tegla Loroupe". Homeless World Cup. 9 August 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Olympians for Life Project proves popular at Olympians Reunion Centre by EY".
  16. ^ "Olympian Loroupe Sets Example with UN Honour".
  17. ^ "ARRS - Race: New York City". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  18. ^ "ARRS - Race: New York City". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  19. ^ "ARRS - Race: Boston". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  20. ^ "ARRS - Race: New York City". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  21. ^ "ARRS - Race: Generale Bank Rotterdam". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  22. ^ "ARRS - Race: New York City". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  23. ^ "ARRS - Race: Osaka International Women's". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  24. ^ "ARRS - Race: Generale Bank Rotterdam". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  25. ^ "ARRS - Race: New York City". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  26. ^ "ARRS - Race: Osaka International Women's". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  27. ^ "ARRS - Race: Generale Bank Rotterdam". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  28. ^ "ARRS - Race: Alberto Berlin". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  29. ^ "ARRS - Race: IAAF Rome Millennium". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  30. ^ "ARRS - Race: Flora London". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  31. ^ "ARRS - Race: Olympic Games". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  32. ^ "ARRS - Race: New York City". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  33. ^ "ARRS - Race: Flora London". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  34. ^ "ARRS - Race: Real Berlin". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  35. ^ "ARRS - Race: Nagoya International Women's". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  36. ^ "ARRS - Race: Lausanne". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  37. ^ "ARRS - Race: Ford Köln". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  38. ^ "ARRS - Race: Stadtwerke Leipzig". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  39. ^ "ARRS - Race: ING New York City- early start". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  40. ^ "ARRS - Race: Flora London- elite women". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  41. ^ "ARRS - Race: IAAF World Championships". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  42. ^ "ARRS - Race: Rotterdam". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  43. ^ "ARRS - Race: Venezia". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  44. ^ "ARRS - Race: Standard Chartered Mumbai". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  45. ^ "ARRS - Race: Greatest Race on Earth". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  46. ^ "ARRS - Race: ING New York City- early start". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  47. ^ "ARRS - Race: Zappos.com Las Vegas". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  48. ^ "ARRS - Race: Nagano JPN". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  49. ^ "199 - 2009 ING New York City Marathon". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  50. ^ "ARRS - Race: Nykredit Copenhagen". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  51. ^ "ARRS - Race: ING New York City- elite women". Retrieved 4 October 2019.
[edit]
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Records
Preceded by Women's Marathon World Record Holder
19 April 1998 – 30 September 2001 		Succeeded by
Sporting positions
Preceded by Zevenheuvelenloop Women's Winner (15 km)
1992 – 1993
1998 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Egmond Women's Half Marathon Winner
1993 – 1998
2000 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Women's Leipzig Marathon winner
2004 		Succeeded by
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