LEONHARD FOEGER/REUTERS |
As well as now being a double Olympic champion, 27-year-old Rudisha
holds the past two titles from the 2011 and 2015 World Championships.
The Kenyan has also broke the world record three times, with his current
best sitting at 1:40.91, obtained at London 2012.
But he was adamant that his run in Rio was his best achievement yet. “It is the greatest moment of my career,” said Rudisha, the BBC reported.
Known as the King in his homeland, Rudisha was born as a member of the
Maasai tribe in Narok County, southwest Kenya. The runner was nurtured
by Colm O’Connell, a 67-year-old Irish missionary who has coached
several Olympic and world champion athletes in the remote Kenyan town of
Iten, despite having no prior coaching experience.
The son of Daniel Rudisha—himself a silver medalist in the 4x400 meter
relay at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City—the Olympic champion is the
father of two daughters and also serves as a police officer through Kenya’s national service program.
Rudisha won his first international medal at the 2006 World Junior
Championships in Beijing and has continued to accumulate medals and
accolades since then. He was named the male Athlete of the Year in 2010
by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF),
intersecting a five-year streak of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt picking up the gong.
At the London 2012 Olympics—where Bolt won a famous treble in the 100
meters, 200 meters and 4x100 meter relay—many commentators remarked that
Rudisha’s performance, where the Kenyan became the first man to run 800
meters in under 1:41, eclipsed that of the famous Jamaican. “Bolt was
good, but Rudisha is magnificent,” said Lord Sebastian Coe,
a previous 800 meter Olympic silver medalist. Coe described Rudisha’s
victory as “the most extraordinary piece of running I have probably ever
seen” and the “performance of the [London 2012] Games.”
Kenyan athletics has been plunged into a crisis by allegations of doping
and corruption that have persisted in recent years. The country narrowly avoided a ban on
its track and field athletes competing in Rio after implementing new
anti-doping legislation in June to comply with an order from the World
Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). But Kenya remains dogged by the allegations
and scores of athletes have been banned in recent years for taking
performance-enhancing substances.
Controversy has not gone away in Rio, with Kenyan middle-distance running coach John Anzrah being sent home after reportedly posing as an athlete for a drugs test. Another coach, Michael Rotich, was recalled from Rio after an investigation by The Sunday Times and
German broadcaster ARD found that he had solicited $13,000 bribes to
warn other coaches in advance about upcoming drugs tests.
Rudisha has said he is hurt by the damage done to Kenya’s reputation as a
world power in athletics and urged up-and-coming athletes to stay
clean. “For many years, Kenya has been doing well on the athletics
stage, winning championships without this problem,” said Rudisha in March.
“But it’s really tough. Because these young athletes who are desperate
to make money, to win races, they end up being fools and getting into
these drugs.”
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