Faith Kipyegon opens up on injury that has all but ended her season

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

Triple Olympic and world 1,500 metres champion, Faith Kipyegon, has opened up about the pain of suffering a hamstring injury that has all but ended her season.

A hamstring injury is a strain or tear of the muscles that run along the back of the thigh. It causes sharp pain during running or exercises, and healing can take anything from days to months, depending on the extent of the tear. In Kipyegon’s case, the injury is sure to keep her out of the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, a premier season-ending track and field event that will take place from September 11–13 at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary.

The premier season-ending track and field event features a $10 million (Sh1.294 billion) prize pool and an elite, streamlined format restricted to reigning global and Diamond League champions.

“If there is something that has left me in shock, it is this injury. In fact, I don’t like talking about it at all,” Kipyegon told Nation Sport yesterday.

She spoke for the first time since Wednesday, when she announced that she was taking a break from training and competitions to start rehabilitation following the injury.

Kipyegon said she regrets competing in the last two rounds of the Diamond League - the Prefontaine Classic held at Hayward Field in Oregon, USA, and the Monaco Diamond League - saying it aggravated the injury.

“I now just want to focus on healing first, before I can even start thinking about my first training and when it will be,” Kipyegon, who holds the world 1,5000m record, said.

“I think I should have been keen on taking care of the hamstring first (instead of competing in Diamond League races).”

Kipyegon disclosed that she has been dealing with a hamstring injury since May 16 this year when she competed in the Shanghai Diamond League and got her 30th Diamond League victory.

The 32-year-old former 5,000m world record holder won the race in a world lead of 14 minutes and 24.14 seconds upon her return to Shanghai for the first time in nine years.

Shanghai is where Kipyegon made her second ever outing in the Diamond League in 2016, winning the 1,500m race in 3:56.82. She had just won the Mile race in Brussels in 4:16.71 the previous year.

On February 15 this year, Kipyegon opened the season with a victory at the Monaco 10km Road Race Run (9:47), then headed to Shanghai Diamond League and won. She finished third in Women’s Mile (4:17.80) behind home athlete Nikki Hiltz (4:17.49) and her compatriot, world 1,500m silver medallist Dorcas Ewoi (4:17.62) at the Prefontaine Classic on July 4.

Kipyegon then competed in the Monaco Diamond League on July 10, finishing fourth in the 3,000m in 8:24.21 as compatriot Agnes Ng’etich won in 8:08.95.

“I didn’t want to miss Nike Prefontaine Classic and I didn’t want to miss competing in the magic of Hayward Field,” said Kipyegpon on social media at the time. She had hoped to post a strong performance in the second half of the season, but that is now not possible.

“As athletes, we often deal with challenges you can’t always see from the outside. We ask a lot of our bodies. There is always a thin line between being fit and the risk of injury,” Kipyegon wrote on Twitter on Wednesday as she announced that she would be taking a rest. “Since the end of May, I have been dealing with a hamstring injury and unfortunately it needs a bit longer to recover than I had hoped.”

Kipyegon said taking care of the injury is now the most important thing for her. “So for now, I will take the time to heal, recover and get stronger. I can’t promise when I will be back,” said Kipyegon.

It’s not the first time Kipyegon is taking a break mid-season owing to injury. A calf injury delayed the start of her 2024 season, making her miss the Prefontaine Classic in May the same year. Kipyegon, who had won the world 5,000m title in 2023, returned stronger, winning both the 5,000m and 1,500m races at the national trials for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Kipyegon went on to seal her third historic Olympic title in the 1,500m, besides taking silver in the 5,000m behind her compatriot Beatrice Chebet, who claimed a momentous double, adding on the 10,000m gold medal.

Kipyegon first opened up about the hamstring injury on July 5, a day after finishing third at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, USA.

Sports psychologist Rowena Tirop notes that it’s quite understandable for elite athletes like Kipyegon to get frustrated by injury, and they need counselling and good care.

“It’s acceptable that she wished she had done it differently but she has to accept it has happened and that she needs to recover and heal well,” said Tirop, adding that Kipyegon needs reassurance that she will return better than before.

“She has done that before when she had a calf injury in 2024 and when she took a maternity break back in 2017,” Tirop explains, adding that the public needs to know that our athletes are not superhuman.

Reporting originally appeared via Nation Africa. Read the full source for additional context.