Faith Kipyegon has revealed how support from fans helped her win the Olympics 1500m title despite immense stress owing to her brief disqualification after the 5,000m race.
Three-time Olympic 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon has recounted her encounter with Gudaf Tsegay at the Paris Olympic Games.
Competing in the women’s 5000m final race, Faith Kipyegon was disqualified for obstructing Gudaf Tsegay and her silver medal briefly stripped before it was reinstated after a successful appeal by Kenya.
Speaking during the Churchill Live show, the double world champion explained that her support system played a huge role in her bounce back to win the 1500m title. Faith Kipyegon disclosed that she wanted to give up but remembered the thousands of fans who were watching her and waiting for her to make history.
19:19 - 11.10.2024
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She added that many people thought she was not content with the silver which, according to her was not true, although the whole ordeal brought her success.
“I went back to the village (Olympic village) with a lot of stress…I thanked everyone who talked to me and told me I had something else to do. I had the 1500m the next day and I had to put my head up and losing that race would have been bad,” Kipyegon said.
“I was not disappointed after winning the silver in the 5000m but the fact that I had been disqualified due to a mistake I had not made. I knew I had not made any mistake and I had been disqualified and lost my silver medal and had the 1500m the next day…I ran with a lot of pressure.
“I wanted to go back home but I remembered the next generation and the youth who were watching me and my fans and I had to give myself the morale that I had to do it.”
Faith Kipyegon says she is close with Gudaf Tsegay who she met at Athlos, Alexis Ohanian’s women-only event and had a conversation.
“She is my friend and you know this is the sport, we need each other to go step by step while running on the track and even when we go to the marathon and I wouldn’t want us to be enemies. I met her at Athlos and I greeted her and I hugged her…it was good,” she said.