Kipyegon’s third world record puts her on the same pedestal as the all-time greats

Kipyegon’s third-world record puts her on the same pedestal as the all-time greats

How do you measure greatness in Sports? It’s an age-old question that seems to resonate every time a world-class athlete churns out another magnificent performance in his or her discipline. In a sport like athletics, the criteria become all the more difficult to prune down considering the range of discipline contested for by athletes. 

Is the 100m world record much easier to break than the 5000m world record? Or is the marathon world record much more feasible to take down than the Long jump? The reality is the media and fans have a way of shaping this perspective, and whichever discipline gets much attention is more likely to see the conversation stir toward who the greatest athlete of all time is. 

But there are some things that are irrefutable and glaring even to the naked eye. Nobody breaks three records and isn’t in the conversation about being the greatest athlete of all time. Cue in the great Faith Kipyegon. 49 days were what it took her to break the women’s 1500m, 5000m, and, more recently, the Mile world record. On the surface, it looks like just another day in the office, but never in the history of Track and Field has an athlete broken three world records in a calendar year. It’s just outright ridiculous, and we a lucky to be witnessing it. 

“I do not know how I am doing this because it just keeps going really in a good way,” she said, according to meet organizers. “When I started this season, my goal was to just break the 1500m world record,” Kipyegon said after clocking a newly-minted 4:07.64s for a new Mile record. 

Her sojourn to this level started way back in 2010 when as a 16-year-old, the then barefooted Kipyegon placed fourth at the world cross-country junior championships race. It’s a herculean task predicting greatness, but when Jenny Simpson (America’s greatest miler) nicknamed her the “sniper” for her ability to run people down in the final lap, we began to see signs that she was destined for greatness. And in Monaco, she continues to write new tales of beautiful chapters that only great before her have opened.

Usain Bolt, Tirunesh Dibaba, Eliud Kipchoge, Haile…