At the age of 25, Double Olympic Games champion, Beatrice Chebet, is on the cusp of history.
Two major declarations by the 2024 Paris Olympics Games 10,000 metres and 5,000m gold medallist, who is also the world record holder in 10,000m race, has sent tongues wagging in the athletics world.
Chebet announced that she will attempt to break the women’s 5,000m world record at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League Meeting on July 5 in Oregon, Eugene, United States of America.
Two months later, she will attempt to become the first woman to concurrently hold both Olympic and world titles in 5,000m and 10,000m races when she competes in the World Athletics Championships from September 13 to 21 in Tokyo, Japan.
Other than holding two Olympic titles, Chebet also holds the world record for women’s 5km road race of 13 minutes and 54 seconds which she set in victory in Barcelona on December 31, 2024, and the world record of 28:54.14 in women’s 10,000m on the track, which she achieved at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League Meeting on May 25, 2024.
The making of Double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet
With two Olympic titles and two world records, Chebet will join an elite club of athletes should she win gold in 5,000m and 10,000m at 2025 World Athletics Championships in Japan.
Barring injury or mishap, Chebet, who won both junior and senior world cross country titles, has what it takes to achieve the feat.
Her performances paint the picture of a talented athlete who dedicates all her effort to achieving the targets she sets for herself, and she has been in red-hot form this season. Age is also on her side.
On June 6, Chebet, who comes from Londiani in Kericho County, ran the second fastest time in history in the 5,000m while winning the Rome Diamond League in a national record and meet record time of 14 minutes and 3.69 seconds, missing the world record by just 3.48 seconds.
June 6, 2025, Kenya's Beatrice Chebet in action during women's 5000m final.
Photo credit: Reuters
On that occasion, Chebet shattered the meet record of 14:12.59 held by Ethiopian Almaz Ayana from 2016, and missed Tsegay Gudaf’s world record of 14:00.21 which the Ethiopian set at the 2023 Prefontaine Classic on September 17, 2023.
On that occasion, Chebet clocked 14:05.92, then third fastest time over the distance. The following year at 2024 Zurich Diamond League, Chebet won the race with the third fastest time ever of 14:09.52.
Having come close to breaking the record, she has now set her sights on making history as the first woman to run the 5,000m under 14 minutes.
“I am capable of the world record. So now, I am going back home and I will prepare for it. Everything is possible,” Chebet said after winning in Rome, adding that the record could fall if she is pushed till the 3,000m mark.
Because Athletics Kenya will use the Prefontaine Classic to choose Kenya women’s 5,000m team for the 2025 World Athletics Championships, the stakes are even higher.
In choosing to attempt the 5000m record in the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field, Chebet will be returning to familiar territory. It’s on the same course on May 25 last year during the Prefontaine Classic that Chebet warmed up for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games with a world record in 10,000m.
Then, as will be the case on July 5, the race doubled up as the Kenyan trials for the Olympics. Chebet clocked a blistering 28:55.14 to win the race, breaking the previous record of 29:01.03 set by Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia in 2021 in Hengelo by a massive seven seconds.
She became the first woman in history to run the 10,000m under 29 minutes, and the first Kenyan woman to hold the world record over the distance.
June 6, 2025 Kenya's Beatrice Chebet celebrates winning the women's 5000m final.
Photo credit: Reuters
Just like last year, Chebet started this season well, winning the 5,000m race at Xiamen Diamond League on April 26 in 14:27.12, then won her 3,000m race at Rabat Diamond League on May 25.
Chebet blew away the decade-old 3,000m national record on her way to victory in the second fastest time in history but missed the world record of 8:06.11 set by Wang Junxia of China on September 13, 1993 in Beijing.
Buoyed by her success from the junior ranks, a period in which she won the 2019 Africa Under- 20 5,000m title, the 2018 World Athletics Championships Under-20 5,000m title, and the 2019 World Cross Country Championships under-20 titles, Chebet launched her 2024 season with gusto.
Chebet confirmed that her victory at the 2023 World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, wasn’t a fluke by retaining the title with an explosive performance on March 30 in Belgrade, Serbia last year.
After comfortably winning her 5,000m race in 2024 Doha Diamond League in 14:26.98, Chebet broke the 10,000m world record to set the tone for Paris Olympics, where she clocked 14:28.56 to win the Olympics 5,000m title, beating defending champion Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands, and reigning world 5,000m champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya.
She went on to seal the 10,000m victory in 30:43.25, becoming the first Kenyan to achieve the feat. She won ahead of Italian Nadia Battocletti (30:43.35,), and defending champion Hassan (30:44.12).
With such a decorated career, it is difficult to imagine that she has failed to achieve some of her goals.
Chebet attempted to break the 5,000m world record of 14:00.21 set by Tsegay in 2023 in Zurich on September 5 last year, but managed a new meeting record of 14:09.52. Riding on that momentum, she reclaimed the 5,000m Diamond League title, winning the final in Brussels in another meet record time of 14:09.82.
With victory in Brussels, she recaptured the Diamond League Trophy which she had won for the first time in 2022. She erased the previous Meeting Record of 14:28.89 that Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana had set in 2016.
Born on March 5, 2000, to Francis and Lillian Kirui in Londiani, Kericho County, Chebet was encouraged to take up athletics by her grandmother Pauline Langát back in 2016 when she was in Form Three at Saramek Secondary School.
Her grandmother approached Lemotit Athletics Club coach Paul Kemei, who was more than ready to take her in at the club.
At the age of 18, Chebet sprung to the limelight in June 2018, when she won the 5,000m race in the Kenyan trials ahead of the 2018 World Athletics Under-20 Championships held in Tampere, Finland.
Chebet would then make history as the first Kenyan woman, and the first athlete outside Ethiopia since 2006, to win the 5,000m title. She had taken a shot at the trials for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, but finished fifth in 5,000m.
Chebet went on to claim women’s under-20 crown both at the 2019 Kenyan Cross Country Championships, and at the 2019 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Aarhus, Denmark.
She went on to win the Africa under-20 5,000m title in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in 2019. She claimed her maiden Diamond League victory in 2021, winning the 3,000m race in Doha. She then attempted to make the Kenyan team for the delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games but finished fifth.
In 2022, Chebet won the Kenyan title in 5,000m, and also claimed the African 5,000m crown in Mauritius, finishing second in the Kenyan trials for the 2022 World Athletics Championships set for Oregon.
That year, she made her first ever appearance at the world championships, claiming silver medal in a time of 14:46.75 behind Gudaf (14:46.29) and ahead of Dawit Seyaum (14:47.36).
She proceeded to the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she won the 5,000m race in 14:38.21.
In 2023, Chebet started the season strongly with a dramatic victory in women’s race at the 44th World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia, zooming past pre-race favourite Letesenbet Gidey, who tumbled and fell 200m from the finish.
“That was a miracle. Mungu akisema ni yako, ni yako (If God says it’s your time, nothing can stop you),” Chebet, who rallied from 500m behind to beat Gidey, said.
She won her 5,000m race at the 2023 Kip Keino Classic, and 1,500m finals both at Kenya Police Service and Kenya National Championships. She then claimed bronze in the 5,000m at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in 14:54.33 behind winner Kipyegon (14:53.88) and silver medallist Hassan (14:54.11).
Chebet won the 5km race in 14.35 at the World Athletics Road Running Championships, Riga, Latvia, and wrapped up her 2023 season with a new women-only 5km world record of 14:13, which was faster than both the previous women-only world record of 14:29, and the mixed world record of 14:19 set in 2021.
