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Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi defied the odds in Paris but his achievement was a turning point in his budding career. He remains the man to beat in 2025.
Paris Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi always seemed like a man on a mission if his meteoric rise is any barometer.
He shot to limelight after winning the 2021 World Under-20 Championships 800-metre gold at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, in Nairobi in a time of 1:43.76. Then a budding 17-year-old, he finished a promising fourth in the men's 800m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon, US.
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15:53 - 17.12.2024
'Almost like a puzzle' - Allyson Felix reveals about the toughest challenge she faced during her trophy-filled track career
Allyson, the multiple Olympic champion always struggled to get his out-of-shape body back on track after the offseason.
It dis not stop here! In June this year, still aged 19, Wanyonyi became the third-fastest 800m runner of all time at Kenya's Olympic trials. He won the Kenyan Trials with 1:41.70 and then placed second at the Paris Diamond League in 1:41.58, went on to win the Olympic gold in 1:41.19, his third PB of the year.
He became the youngest man to win an Olympic 800m title as world champion Marco Arop was just 0.01 behind, setting a North American record to take silver. Djamel earned bronze, while Bryce Hoppel was fourth in a US record of 1:41.67. "It is not just a title - it has a lot of significance in my life," Wanyonyi told the BBC.
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22:00 - 30.11.2024
I'm not obsessed with it' - Emmanuel Wanyonyi on possibility of breaking David Rudisha's 800m record
2025 could be year Wanyonyi intends to break David Rudisha's record but is in no hurry to achieve that feat
Two weeks after taking Olympic gold, Wanyonyi lowered his PB to a world-leading 1:41.11 in Lausanne to move to joint second on the world all-time list. He concluded his season by winning at the Diamond League Final in Brussels.
His comparison with 800m great David Rudisha is not by surprise. Rudisha is a two-time Olympic 800m champion and has won multiple awards including two-time Diamond League winner, two-time world champion and also a two-time African champion .
Rudisha’s legendary world record of 1:40.91 set in the 2012 London Olympics, seemed to be living on borrowed time throughout this year. Heading into the Olympics, Djamel Sedjati was the fastest man in the world with his 1:41:46 set at the Paris Diamond League, where three men finished inside 1:42 and seven went sub-1:43 – the deepest race in history.
Before this year, there had been just 15 sub-1:42 performances in history. That tally now stands at 27, with 12 sub-1:42 runs being achieved this year. Previously, just two men – Rudisha (2010 and 2012) and Wilson Kipketer (1997) – had broken 1:42 three times in one season.
But Wanyonyi, Arop and Sedjati all achieved that feat in 2024; in fact, Wanyonyi did so a record four times.
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