Eliud Kipchoge was born on 5 November 1984 in Kapsisiywa, Kenya, and grew up running several kilometres to school each day through the Nandi Hills. He burst onto the global stage in 2003, winning the 5,000m World Championship in Paris as a teenager, defeating Hicham El Guerrouj and Kenenisa Bekele in the same race. After a bronze and silver at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics in the 5,000m, he shifted focus to the marathon in 2013 and never looked back.
What followed was the greatest marathon career in history: 15 wins from 18 starts, two world records in Berlin (2:01:39 in 2018, then 2:01:09 in 2022), and back-to-back Olympic gold medals in Rio and Tokyo. In October 2019, in Vienna, he became the first human to run a marathon in under two hours — 1:59:40 — a feat considered impossible until he did it. He completed his final competitive marathon at the 2025 New York City Marathon, finishing his Seven Star Major cycle and announcing a new chapter: the Eliud Kipchoge World Tour, running seven marathons on seven continents not to win, but to inspire.