Great marathoner Eliud Kipchoge has hinted at retiring from the Olympics after major disappointment during the Paris Olympics 2024.
Speaking to Olympics.com after dropping out just after the 30km mark after an hour and about 40 seconds of running, Kipchoge said he will not run at Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028.
“You will see me in a different way, maybe giving people motivation, but I will not run. I don’t know what next. I need to go back [home], sit down, try to figure my 21 years of running at high level. I need to evolve and feature in other things,” he said.
He termed the 2024 Paris Olympics marathon as the worst race in his career.
“It is a difficult time for me. This is my worst marathon. I have never done a DNF (did not finish). That’s life. Like a boxer, I have been knocked down, I have won, I have come second, eighth, 10th, fifth – now I did not finish. That’s life,” he said.
The race on Saturday, August 10, 2024, ended in heartbreak as Kipchoge was dethroned by Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola who clocked 2:06:26 to secure a gold medal for his country.
Tola smashed the previous Olympic record of 2:06.32 held by the late Samuel Wanjiru from Kenya who achieved the feat in the 2008 Beijing Games.
“Tamirat Tola breaks the Olympic marathon record with 2:06:26 on what might be the most brutal marathon course ever in the history of the Olympics,” World Athletics stated.
Tola was followed closely by Belgium’s Bashir Abdi who took silver, improving on his bronze from Tokyo, and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto claimed bronze.
Kipchoge prides himself on two Olympic gold medals and 10 major marathon victories.
