Kenya’s marathon star Peres Jepchirchir has explained why returning to France in 2024 for the Olympic Games will be special.

It is in the French capital, Paris, that Jepchirchir, then a 21-year-old, made her first trip to Europe to compete in the Montbéliard-Belfort Le Lion Half-Marathon in the east of France in 2014, and participation in the next global showpiece will take her back to that memorable place.

“It would be special for me to run over there again and win, especially in the Olympics.

“It was my first half marathon, and it was 69 minutes, which at that time was good. It inspired me a lot, and from there I started running good races,” Jepchirchir told World Athletics.

Jepchirchir’s marathon debut

Before she made her marathon debut, Jepchirchir had a number of attempts at that distance. That debut came at the age of 20 at the Kisumu Safaricom Marathon.

But the runner did not compete in the marathon, as she had planned, because of a regulation that had been put in place by the organisers.

“I was going there for the 10k, and then I arrived, and the 10k was only for people from that area. I remember it a lot because I ran that first marathon without any long runs,” she added.

Fast forward, and in 2022, Jepchirchir became the first woman in history to have won Olympic, New York, and Boston marathon titles.

She has established herself as a force over both the half and the full marathon and holds the current women-only world record of 1:05:16, set when winning her second world title over the distance.

Her outright personal best of 1:05:06, meanwhile, was set when Jepchirchir was a few weeks pregnant.

She is going to feature in the New York Marathon before fully concentrating on the upcoming Olympic Games.