Tegla Loroupe

Tegla Loroupe 2007 in Schortens

Tegla Loroupe Chepkite (born May 9, 1973 in Kapsait ) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who set two world records in marathons , was three times world champion in half marathons and achieved many victories in important city marathons.

Life

Tegla Loroupe's father had five wives, so she grew up with 24 siblings. When she was seven years old, she had to walk 10 km to school in the morning and home in the afternoon. She also began to take part in school competitions during her school days. Loroupe was quite successful over 800 meters and 1500 meters and was spotted in these races. Her family only supported her from her mother.

The Kenyan Athletics Association initially did not sponsor her, but this changed after her victory in a major cross-country race . In 1994 she won the New York City Marathon straight away . The highlight of her career is the 1999 victory at the Berlin Marathon in the world record time of 2:20:43 hours. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney , she started over 10,000 meters and in the marathon, but was struck by food poisoning and unsuccessful in both disciplines.

Loroupe was looked after by the German manager Volker Wagner . She is an athlete ambassador for the development aid organization Right to Play . In Kapenguria she founded a boarding school for orphaned or abandoned children, the Tegla Loroupe Peace Academy. Kenya's president awarded her a doctorate.

She acted as Chef de Mission of the refugee team at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro .

successes

• Winner of the Goodwill Games over 10,000 meters: 1994 in Saint Petersburg , 1998 in New York City
• Bronze over 10,000 meters at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg and at the 1999 World Championships in Seville
• New York City Marathon: Winner 1994, 1995, third in 1998
• Rotterdam Marathon : Winner 1997, 1998 (world record), 1999
• Berlin Marathon: Winner 1999 (world record), runner-up in 2001
• Victory in the London Marathon (2000), the Rome Marathon (2000), the Lausanne Marathon (2002, course record), the Cologne Marathon (2003) and the Leipzig Marathon (2004, course record)
• Three-time world champion in the half marathon (1997–1999)
• Holder of the current world records over 20,000 meters (1: 05: 26.6 h), 25,000 meters (1: 27: 05.9 h) and 30,000 meters (1: 45: 50.0 h)

Awards

Sports

• four times world athlete of the year in road running
• Abebe Bikila Award
• Award "Heroes Of Running" New York Marathon 2007

social commitment

• Georg von Opel Prize "The Silent Winners" (Georg von Opel Foundation)
• Eve "Woman Of The Year" (Eve-Verlag Nairobi)
• Award of the International Women's Run Vienna 2006 (presented by the organizer)
• Sports badge of the state of Hesse (highest award in the state for those involved in sports)
• Nomination "Athlete with a Heart" German Sports Press Ball 2007

voluntary work

• President of the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation
• Official Ambassador of the World Athletics Federation IAAF (appointed 2006)
• Personal member of NOK Kenya
• Ambassador for the development aid organization Oxfam since 2007
• official UNICEF ambassador (appointed 2006)
• Ambassador for the World Cricket Federation and the Right To Play non-profit organization
• Special Olympics (sports competitions for the disabled)
• World Vision (children's aid organization)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Shops in Diestelbruch spiegel.de October 26, 1998
2. ↑ https://www.laufen.de/tegla-loroupe
3. ↑ Start of the G8 run! June 4, 2007 on presseportal.de

Web links

• Tegla Loroupe's personal website (not updated)
• Tegla Loroupe in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Tegla Loroupe in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Athlete portrait on marathoninfo.free.fr
• Kenyan Tegla Loroupe-Foundation (English)
• Tegla is running. And why? ( Memento of November 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ); Portrait of Uwe Prieser in Die Zeit , September 14, 2000