Faith Kipyegon hopes to inspire young athletes to embrace resilience and freedom in their careers, sharing how she overcame setbacks to achieve Olympic success and her early joy of running barefoot.

Faith Kipyegon is undoubtedly the greatest 1500m runner of all time and with her tons of accolades, many athletes look up to her.

Having this in mind, the three-time Olympic champion explained that she wants all her fans and upcoming runners to know there is freedom in being an accomplished athlete.

She had one of the most surprising outings at the Paris Olympic Games, being shortly disqualified after the women’s 5000m and her silver medal stripped, before it was reinstated upon an appeal, but she bounced back to take 1500m gold medal. 

From such experiences, Faith Kipyegon noted that she wants people to know that they have the freedom to rediscover themselves and they can always bounce back no matter the setbacks they are bound to face.

“When young runners from the next generation watch me compete, I want them to see freedom — the freedom to challenge themselves in new ways. My 2024 season was beautiful. I was thankful for competing in the 5,000m in Paris and the 1,500m, which happened a few days later,” Faith Kipyegon said in an interview with Nike.

“But when I held that silver medal from the 5,000m, I thought to myself, ‘I can’t let this disturb my 1,500 dreams.’ So, I put that silver medal away. I had to be mentally strong to achieve my goal in the 1,500m,” she added. 

She added that growing up, she always loved competing bare foot because it was enjoyable then. Despite having spikes in a couple of races, Faith Kipyegon noted that she could not stand wearing them and opted to run barefoot mostly.

The double world champion went down memory lane to the days when she and her classmates would run back home for lunch then back to school. She termed running as a ‘shared childhood experience.’

“Running barefoot has always felt comfortable to me. When I started running competitively at 14, I was given spikes to wear for the first time. I was happy to have them, but feeling as comfortable in spikes as I was while running barefoot took a long time. I even turned down wearing spikes a few times. Now, I still can’t believe how I’m running in the fastest spikes on the planet,” she added. By Abigael Wafula, Pulse