NEW YORK.- The Olympic athlete Ugandan Rebecca Cheptegei, who participated in the past Paris 2024 Gamesdied in a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after suffering burns to 80% of her body following an attack by her partner. She was 33 years old.
Owen Menach, spokesman for Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret town, confirmed the death on Thursday. The long-distance runner died in the early hours of the morning after organ failure, he added. She had been fully sedated since her admission to the hospital.
Cheptegei had competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Games less than a month before the attack. She finished 44th.
Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, told reporters at the hospital that he had lost a “very understanding” daughter and that he hoped justice would be done.
Cheptegei’s partner, Dickson Ndiema, bought a jerrycan of petrol, poured it on the athlete and set her alight during a disagreement on Sunday, Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said on Monday. Ndiema also suffered burns and was being treated at the same centre.
Ndiema remains in intensive care with burns to 30 percent of his body, but was “improving and stable,” Menach said.
According to the runner’s parents, their daughter bought land in Trans Nzoia to be close to the area’s numerous athletics training centres. A report from the local police chief said the couple was heard arguing over the land where the house was built before the fire broke out.
They cry out for justice
The Uganda Athletics Federation praised Cheptegei in a post on social media site X. “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing away of our athlete Rebecca Cheptegei early this morning, a tragic victim of domestic violence. As a Federation, we condemn these acts and call for justice. May her soul rest in peace,” it said.
Uganda Olympic Committee President Donald Rukare called the attack “a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete.”
In 2023, Ugandan Olympic hurdler and runner Benjamin Kiplagat was found dead with stab wounds. A year earlier, Kenyan-born Bahraini athlete Damaris Muthee was found dead and an autopsy later revealed she had been strangled. In 2021, long-distance runner Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death in her home. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was arrested and charged with murder in a case that remains open.
