Kenya is expecting a bumper medal harvest at the Paris Olympics from its famed athletics team, but iconic runner Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon may feel more weight on her shoulders than others, as she is expected to win not one but two gold medals.
The two-time champion in the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 is by far the biggest star of the east African nation's track and field squad and is expected to take most of the medals in Paris.
Having delayed the start of this season due to a hamstring injury, Kipyegon — as she prefers to be called when competing—underlined her credentials to defend her metric mile Olympic title when she broke her own women's 1,500m record on July 7.
Returning to the scene of her record-breaking mark over 5,000m last year, at the Paris Diamond League, the 30-year-old motored around the same track that will be used for the Olympics competition in the French capital.
World Athletics ratified her new world record on July 27, the perfect send-off gift to the proud mother of daughter Aylin.
The mercurial Kenyan is going for an unprecedented Olympic 1,500m and 5,000m double, having won both races at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
Kipyegon declared she was under no pressure ahead of her Olympic double challenge, stressing that her only concern was to stay fit for the competition.
"When I am healthy I know what I am capable of doing. I put all my mind towards the Olympics because I know defending the title is not easy. And I am seeking to be on top as a three-time Olympic champion, which is not easy," she said.
"[Winning gold] would mean a lot, especially if I defend my title. It would be motivating for young girls and women in the world to know everything is possible in life. For me to go to Paris and defend my 1,500m title would be history. I don't think any other person, man or woman, has defended that title three times. It would be history," she added.
Kipyegon is coached by Patrick Sang, the Barcelona 1992 Olympic men's steeplechase silver medalist, who also trains teammate and compatriot, marathon great Eliud Kipchoge.
According to Sang, coaching superstars Kipyegon and Kipchoge, who are now multiple Olympians, is a testament that longevity is the new lesson in the modern world of distance running.
Ahead of her journey to France, Kipyegon said: "I feel good after managing to come back strongly after getting a little bit of a (injury) problem. I thank God that everything is good. Hopefully, as a team, we will do well in Paris," Kipyegon told local media after her final training session in Kaptagat on July 27.
In June, Kipyegon had powered to 1,500m and 5,000m wins at the Kenyan Olympic Trials in Nairobi in blistering fashion.
She blasted to 14:46.28 in the longer race, and a day later, stormed to 3:53.99 in the former, the fastest women's 1,500m ever run at high altitude.
"I can declare that I am going to [win both events in Paris] after this win because I have gained more confidence and I am doing well. I am ready to go and represent Kenya in the 1,500m and 5,000m," the four-time world 1,500m champion told Xinhua after the Kenya Trials.
Her journey from a student runner in local meets to global superstardom first came to the world's attention at the 2010 World Cross Country in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Then running barefoot, Kipyegon stormed to gold in the junior 6km women's race, kicking off a career that has seen her win 17 gold medals for Kenya to stand head and shoulders as her country's most decorated female athlete of all time.
"Discipline matters. We have many elite athletes, especially in Kenya, but if you don't have discipline and hard work and you are not serious in what you do, you will go nowhere," she said.
