Eliud Kipchoge said on Sunday his bid for a third straight marathon Olympic gold was spoiled by a back injury.
The Kenyan looked poised to put up a strong title defense in Saturday’s race — one of the final running events at the Paris Games — but dropped out near the 31km mark.
He appeared to grab his left side and lower back will drifting further behind the lead pack.
Kipchoge was seen walking while waiting for the catcher vehicle to arrive and take him off of the course. He then took his shoes off and handed them to cheering fans behind a barrier. As the crowd continued to root him on, Kipchoge gave away other pieced of his gear and his race bib.
Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola navigated the Paris streets, warm conditions and two steep parts of the course and broke the Olympic record in in 2:06.26. Tola, 32, was entered as a substitute two weeks ago in place of teammate Sisay Lemma.
According to a report in The Independent, Kipchoge’s said his struggles were apparent nearly half way through the race.
“I had a pain in my back at about 20km and decided not to finish and try to get out,” Kipchoge said. “The hills didn’t affect me at all. The pain made me stop.”
He added, “I walked for 2km and had more than 300 people on either side of me walking with me. That’s why I don’t have my shirt, the socks, the shoes, the race number.”
With his first DNF on the arguably the biggest stage, speculation about Kipchoge’s future in the sport flooded social media.
A tenth place finish at the Tokyo Marathon (2:06:50) in March was seen as a disappointment and follows a challenging 2023 Boston Marathon that was only good for 6th place in 2:09:23. He rebounded from the poor showing in Boston and cruised to a 2:02:42 win in Berlin later in the year.
In a post on the official Olympics website, Kipchoge found the words to describe his frustration with not properly defending his 2021 gold medal.
“It is a difficult time for me,” he said. “This is my worst marathon. I have never done a DNF (did not finish). That’s life. Like a boxer, I have been knocked down, I have won, I have come second, eighth, 10th, fifth – now I did not finish. That’s life.”
Kipchoge did confirm that he won be among the competitors in the 2028 Los Angeles, signaling the end of his competition in the Olympics.
You will see me in a different way, maybe giving people motivation, but I will not run,” he said. “I don’t know what next. I need to go back [home], sit down, try to figure my 21 years of running at high level. I need to evolve and feature in other things.”
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