Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics, has died from burns four days after police say her former boyfriend poured gasoline on her and set her on fire.
The death of Cheptegei, 33, who was taken to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya with burns over more than 75% of her body on Sunday, was announced by the hospital’s director and the Ugandan Athletics Federation.
Cheptegei, who was in the hospital’s intensive care unit, “passed today morning at 5:30 a.m. after her organs failed,” Owen Menach, the hospital’s senior director of clinical services, told Reuters. A full report regarding the circumstances of her death would be released later in the day, he said.
“We have learnt of the sad passing on of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei … following a vicious attack by her boyfriend,” Uganda Olympics Committee president Donald Rukare said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “May her gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women.”
Cheptegei, who was born and raised in Cheminy, Uganda, had been training in Trans-Nzoia County in western Kenya. She had purchased and developed land there in Kinyoro, Kenya, to make it easier and less costly to train in Kenya, the Kenyan newspaper The Standard reported.
Cheptegei made her Olympic debut at the Paris Olympics, finishing No. 44 in the women’s marathon.
She began her career in 2010 and competed in 1,500 meters, 10,000 meters, half-marathons and marathons. She represented Uganda in the 2011 and 2013 World Cross Championships in Punta Umbria and Bydgoszcz, The Standard reported.
In 2022, she won the Padova marathon in Rome, Italy, and also won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.
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