Beatrice Chebet, 25, has been a woman in a hurry. She starts races and ends up first and sometimes, the fastest of all time in ways that leave the glass ceiling needing repair.
That fast shuffling of her feet propelled her to two Olympic titles in the women’s 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the Paris Olympic Games in August 2024, becoming the first Kenyan athlete to be garlanded with two gold medals in one single edition of the Games.
Chebet, nicknamed “the Smiling Assassin”, had warmed up for that historic achievement with an extraordinary triumph in May 2024 and cooled down with another remarkable accomplishment in July 2025.
On May 25, 2024, during the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, she won the 10 000 metres with a time of 28:54.14, becoming the first woman to break the 29-minute barrier in the distance in a track race.
Kenya's Beatrice Chebet celebrates after winning the women's 10,000m gold at World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 13, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
On June 6, at the Golden Gala in Rome, Italy, she teased the women’s 5,000 metres record after winning the race with a time 14:03.69, then the second fastest all-time in the event.
When she met the clock again for a 5,000 metres race on July 5 , at the Prefontaine Classic, she obliterated the world record with a new all time best of 13:58.06, pushing the mark to a frontier as the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier over the distance.
That performance added to her two world records in the women’s only and mixed five-kilometre races – 14:13 and 13:54 respectively.
Yet, those feats do not suffice to complete her athletics conquests. A drift to Tokyo for the 2025 World Athletics Championships, the third of her career, took her to uncharted waters.
Last Saturday, she competed in the 10,000 metres for the first time at the World Athletics Championships leaving the track with a gold medal that made her the first woman to simultaneously hold the world record, the Olympic title, and the World Championships title in the women’s 10,000 metres.
Now, as she approaches the summit she left unconquered at Eugene 2022 (silver) and Budapest 2023 (bronze) – a victory in the women’s 5,000 metres – she does so with more history beckoning.
Winning in the event on Saturday, will see her become the first woman to hold simultaneously, Olympic titles, the World Championships titles, and world records in two disciplines.
If she manages to overcome stiff competition from 1,500 metres queen Faith Kipyegon amongst others, the Smiling Assassin will complete a superlative feat that has not been witnessed in individual track events since 2009 when the Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele and Jamaica’s Usain Bolt reigned supreme at the 2009 World Athletics Championships held in Berlin.
Bekele went to the German capital as the Olympic champion and the world record holder in the 5,000m and 10,000m. He returned home as the first man to win a 5,000m and 10,000m double at the World Athletics Championships.
The Briton Mo Farah came close to emulating him with back-to-back doubles in the 5,000m and 10,000m at the Olympic Games (2012 and 2016) and the World Athletics Championships (2013 and 2015) but the Somalia-born athlete never set world records in the two events.
Bekele’s world records in those two events – set in 2004 (5,000m) and 2005 (10,000m) – stood until 2020 when Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei broke them. Bekele also set Olympic records in 5,000m and 10 000 metres at 2008 Beijing Games.
Unlike Bekele, Usain Bolt left nothing on the table when he unified his dominance of the 100m and 200m.
Kenya's Beatrice Chebet crosses the line to win the Women's 10,000m gold at World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 13, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
He won both events with competition record times at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2009 World Athletics Championships. He remains the only person who currently holds two world records, two World Athletics Championships records, and two Olympic records.
That was an honour that Bolt snatched from the American Michael Johnson who won the 200m and 400m at the 1995 World Athletics Championships and the 1996 Olympic Games with competition record times.
At that time, Johnson also held the world record in the 200m.
He did break the 400m world record at the 1999 World Athletics Championships in Seville, Spain but by then he was no longer the world champion in the 200m.
Johnson later lost his Olympic and World Championships record in the 200m to Bolt in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
His Olympic record in the 400m stood until 2016 when the South African Wayne van Niekerk smashed it. He still keeps the competition record in the 400 metres – 43:18 – at the World Athletics Championships.
Johnson’s compatriot Carl Lewis also came close to claiming dominance of two separate athletics events.
Between 1983 and 1996, Lewis won three world titles and two Olympic gold medals in 100m.
However, failure to break the world record in the long jump meant that the great Lewis fell short of accomplishing what Bekele and Bolt later achieved.
Still, the American won the gold medal in the long jump with championship records at the 1983 and 1987 editions.
Should Chebet claim gold on Saturday she will have laid a weighty claim to being one of the greatest athletes of all time, certainly the greatest long distance running female athlete of all time.
