NEW YORK, Nov 1 — Marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge, widely regarded as the greatest of all time, has announced that Sunday’s New York City Marathon will be his final race in the major series.
The Kenyan, who turns 41 next week, will cap a remarkable 13-year career that includes victories in 16 of his 23 competitive marathons.
An unparalleled 11 of those wins were at World Marathon Majors, making him the most decorated athlete, male or female, in the series' history.
“November, and it’s New York… It’s a place that has been on my mind for a long time,” he said in an interview with Olympics.com, adding that it was time to visit the city before beginning his “new journey of running for other things.”
His debut in New York will complete the seven-star set, having already raced in the other six major marathons after Sydney, Australia, was added to the list in August.
Kipchoge has won in both Tokyo and Chicago, and remains the only male athlete to have four London Marathon titles and five Berlin wins, where he set world records in 2018 (2:01:39) and 2022 (2:01:09).
While not eligible for official records, he famously became the first person to break the two-hour barrier in 2019, running 1:59:40 in a specially organised event in Vienna. His official best remains the 2:01:09 he set in Berlin, the second-fastest official time in history behind the late Kelvin Kiptum.
Kipchoge is also one of only three men to win back-to-back Olympic marathon gold medals, with victories in Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2021).
His decision follows a difficult outing at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he failed to finish for the first time in his marathon career, dropping out around the 30km mark.
He now plans to shift his focus towards mentoring and sports administration following his election as Kenya’s men’s athlete representative to the national Olympic committee.
