Update 9/5: Hospital staff announced on Thursday that Cheptegei has died from her injuries.
Ugandan athlete Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set on fire after a horrifying attack by a former boyfriend on Sunday, has died. Cheptegei, a 33-year-old marathon runner who had just competed at the Paris Olympics, suffered extensive burns from the assault.
Dr. Owen Benach, the senior director of clinical services at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, told the New York Times that Cheptegei died on Thursday due to “multiple organ failure.” She was being treated at the hospital and had burns on 80 percent of her body.
The attack occurred at Cheptegei’s home in Endebess, a town in western Kenya, where she had been training. Neighbors rescued Cheptegei after the attack, which happened as she was returning home from church with her two children.
Her attacker, an ex-boyfriend of Cheptegei, also sustained burns during the incident and will be charged with murder upon medical release, local police chief Jeremiah Ole Kosiom told the press.
“The couple were heard quarreling outside their house,” Kosiom told the BBC. “During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her.”
Cheptegei, originally from Uganda, purchased land in the town and built a house to be closer to Kenya’s athletic training facilities. A police report says the dispute was about the ownership of the land.
Cheptegei finished 44th in the marathon at this summer’s Olympics and won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.
Violence against female athletes has seen a disturbing upward trend in the past few years. In April 2022, Damaris Mutua was found strangled in her home with a pillow over her face in Iten, Kenya. In 2021, record-breaking long-distance runner Agnes Tirop was also found murdered in Iten.
In both cases, the authorities have identified their partners as the main suspects.
Agnes Tirop’s husband is currently facing murder charges, which he denies, while the authorities are still searching for the boyfriend of Mutua.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
