STORY: :: Fellow athletes mourn the loss of the Ugandan
Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei
:: Nairobi, Kenya
:: September 5, 2024
:: Milcah Chemos-Cheywa, runner and friend of Rebecca Cheptegei
“I can say that we are still in shock and it hurts, especially as athletes. And now that this has happened in Kenya, it is the second time that an athlete has been attacked. We remember the case of Agnes Tirop, and now it is Rebecca, and we are not happy.”
:: Iten, Kenya
:: Joan Chelimo, runner and founder of a non-profit organization against domestic violence
“It hurt me because I know her. I was with her at the Olympics, I was just with her in Paris. And she was so excited, she was so hardworking. She was a mother. I’m like, what can we just do, I don’t know. I just have mixed feelings.”
“We are athletes, we are more vulnerable because we are exploited. There are these men who come along and just use us as property. They want to see a young girl and manipulate her.”
“Now I hope something can be done because I don’t know how many more lives we have to lose for them to wake up.”
Cheptegei died on Thursday, four days after she was doused with petrol and set on fire by her boyfriend in Kenya, the latest attack on a female athlete in the country.
Cheptegei, 33, who was competing in the Paris Olympics, suffered burns to more than 75 percent of her body in Sunday’s attack, Kenyan and Ugandan media reported.
She is the third prominent female athlete to be killed in Kenya since October 2021.
