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Multi-marathon champion and former world record holder Eliud Kipchoge from Kenya wants to achieve what no runner has: winning a third consecutive Olympic marathon title. The first test toward that goal begins on March 3 on the starting line in Japan’s capital, where Kipchoge will compete in one of Asia’s largest marathons.
At 39, he is the oldest invited elite athlete in the Tokyo Marathon men’s field—and also the fastest entrant. Here’s what else you need to know as Kipchoge heads to the starting line.
The Tokyo Marathon Will Be His First Race of 2024
Kipchoge last crossed a finish line five months ago in Germany, where he won the Berlin Marathon an unprecedented fifth time—and on the same course where he broke the world record twice (in 2018 and 2022). Thereafter, in a video posted by the NN Running Team, Kipchoge said he took “a real break” from running, though only briefly before getting back into his dedicated training routine. In a post that Kipchoge shared on his Instagram account ahead of the new year, the veteran runner gushed about his appreciation for Japanese culture and the country’s discipline and loyalty to running.
“Tokyo, I can’t wait to come back to you,” he said in a video announcing his return to the Tokyo Marathon, among the world’s six most renowned marathons. Kipchoge headlines the men’s elite field in his first race of the year, which will also serve as an early test of fitness for the 2024 racing season.
His Road to Paris Begins in Japan
The three-time Olympian was named to Kenya’s provisional Olympic team for the marathon last December (the country has yet to announce its official list). The reigning Olympic champion in the marathon, Kipchoge is aiming to go where no runner has gone: he wants to become the first man to win three consecutive Olympic marathon titles. The Tokyo Marathon “is the perfect preparation,” Kipchoge said. The men’s marathon at the Paris Olympics will be held on August 10, 160 days after the Tokyo Marathon.
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Kipchoge (Mostly) Knows Gold In Tokyo
Kipchoge’s debut racing experience in Japan was in 2007 at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka. He finished second in the 5,000 meters behind Bernard Lagat. His second trip to the country to race was for the Tokyo Olympics marathon in 2021 amid the 79-degree heat. He famously waved to the crowd, giving thumbs up, as he ran through the finish line first and earned his second consecutive gold medal in the event (his first was at the 2016 Rio Olympics).
In that moment, Kipchoge became the first Kenyan man—and only the third in history—to win back-to-back Olympic marathon titles. After the race, which took place in Sapporo, 520 miles north of the country’s capital, he publicly promised to the Japanese people that he would return to run in the streets of Tokyo.
He Holds the Tokyo Marathon Course Record
Seven months after he won the Olympic marathon title in Japan, Kipchoge returned to the country’s capital to compete in the Tokyo Marathon in 2022. The first-comer was also the fastest to finish. Kipchoge set the course record of 2:02:40, which at the time was the fourth-fastest mark in history.
The victory further supported Kipchoge’s goal of running and winning every World Marathon Majors race—the world’s six largest and most prestigious road marathons that also include Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, and New York City. To date, Kipchoge has won four of the six major marathons—including four in London, five in Berlin, and one in Chicago—with only Boston and New York City to claim.
Tokyo Will Be His 22nd Marathon
When Kipchoge runs the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, March 3, it will be his second appearance in the race and the 22nd marathon of his career. The former track star, who specialized in 5,000 meters, turned to the marathon in 2013, debuting and winning in Hamburg in 2:05:30.
Five months later, Kipchoge ran his first World Marathon Major race in Berlin, where he finished second to fellow countryman Wilson Kipsang, who set the world record at that race. Kipchoge would go on to win more than a dozen marathons, including two Olympic victories (2016 and 2020).
In between, he ran the Nike-sponsored Breaking2 project in 2017 followed by the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in 2019, both of which were not open competitions, and therefore his times (2:00:25 and 1:59:40 respectively) are not officially recognized by World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport of athletics.
He’s Been Preparing in the Countryside at High Altitude
In the buildup to Tokyo, Kipchoge has followed a strict training routine under the guidance of his longtime coach Patrick Sang, who has mentored him since his late teens.
Six days a week, Kipchoge lives in a dormitory-style room at Global Sports Communication Training Camp, a secluded five-acre base in Kaptagat in the Rift Valley of Kenya. He typically runs twice a day on long rolling hills in the countryside at an altitude exceeding 7,800 feet above sea level. To recover from it all, Kipchoge sleeps upwards of nine hours a day in addition to 10-minute ice baths twice a week.
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Kipchoge Will be the Oldest Invited Elite Athlete at the Tokyo Marathon
Elite marathon runners achieve their best performances typically between ages 25 and 35. But performance tends to decline due to aging. However Kipchoge, who is 39 years old, has continued to defy the odds. Kipchoge was 37 years old when he broke his own world record in the marathon for the second time, in 2022 in Berlin. On Sunday, he will be the oldest invited men’s elite on the starting line. The second oldest is fellow countryman Benson Kipruto, who is 32.
Kipchoge Has the Fastest Entry Time
Of the 15 invited men’s elite athletes, Kipchoge has the No.1 entry time, 2:01:09, achieved at the 2022 Berlin Marathon. It was a world record before the mark was dethroned by the late Kenyan Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon (2:00:35). Kipchoge’s marathon entry time is two minutes and four seconds faster than the next fastest competitor, Vincent Kipkemoi of Kenya.
Champion Contenders Are Ready to Challenge Kipchoge
Kipchoge will aim to outrun all 38,000 runners that are expected to participate in the Tokyo Marathon. And among them are two other major marathon winners: Tokyo Marathon defending champion Chalu Deso of Ethiopia and Kipruto, who has won two major marathons (2021 Boston and 2022 Chicago). Kipruto outran Kipchoge at the 2023 Boston Marathon to finish third overall before he achieved a personal best performance of 2:04:02 just four months ago in Chicago. And while not a winner of a major marathon, 28-year-old Kengo Suzuki, who holds Japan’s national record of 2:04:56 in the marathon, will vie for victory alongside Kipchoge.