Paul Tergat, Kenya’s former marathon world record holder and two-time Olympic 10,000-meter silver medalist, was elected a new member of the International Olympic Committee at IOC meetings in Buenos Aires last week.
As Capital Sport reports, Tergat is replacing another Kenyan legend, Kipchoge Keino, who is 71 and over the age limit for IOC membership. Keino, a 1968 and 1972 Olympic gold medalist who in 2012 became one of the inaugural members of the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame, is now an honorary life member of the IOC, a distinction shared by former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
“The advantage we have is that now we have a member and honorary member of the IOC,” notes Stephen Soi, Executive Officer of National Olympics Committee- Kenya. “There were other countries eyeing the same seat and it's great that our efforts have borne fruit in the end and we can look forward to Africa being represented well, besides Kenya, at the IOC.”
The courtly Tergat, 44, won five consecutive world cross country titles and set a world marathon record of 2:04:55 in Berlin in 2003. He triumphed in an excruciatingly close and tense duel with South Africa’s Hendrick Ramaala in the 2006 New York City Marathon. He was also the world half-marathon champion twice.
But his most legendary races were 10,000-meter pitched battles with Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics and the 1997 and 1999 world championships, which all resulted in gold for Gebrselassie and silver for Tergat.
In 2004, Tergat was named a UN World Food Program “Ambassador Against Hunger.” He credits the program, which provided him with lunches during his school days, for enabling him to receive a complete education. He also created a marketing company that organizes Kenya’s Sports Personality of the Year Awards.
