Come on, I’m embarking on the adventure again, just like a couple of years ago, when Jakob Ingebrigtsen and his brothers took me out for a jog through Barcelona and things got complicated from the first stride: 4m00s per kilometer of start and the giant Norwegians , whistling.
On the eve of the Cursa dels Nassos, Barcelona’s Sant Silvestre, it is now Beatrice Chebet (24) who takes me for a run and, as we enter the Front Marítim, the petite Kenyan, with a fragile appearance and a childish voice, stretches her pace and here we are again like then: under four minutes.
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Some just follow her.
There goes Ayad Lamdassem or the troop of Chinese long-distance runners who have hired the race. But the rest of the group, including David Escudé (Barcelona Sports Councilor), José Luis Blanco (organizer) and Xavi Gonzálvez-Amat (journalist), have hung up the phone.
We don’t talk anymore.
We just gasp.
And gasping I understand it all, I already understand why Beatrice Chebet, world record holder in the 10,000m (28m54s14), double Olympic gold in Paris 2024 (5,000 and 10,000), is the star she is.
(Today at 4:20 p.m., Chebet returns to the 5K of the Cursa dels Nassos, sponsored by the Barcelona City Council).
In Kenya there are those who believe that talking about women’s problems is bad; “Talking is very good.”
I ask him:
–When you started running, did you dream of being the athletics star you are today?
–When I was young, I ran school games. But in high school I started to earn important things, and at 18 my grandmother told me that I should start believing in myself.
–So it was your grandmother’s thing, right? (Pauline Lang’at).
–She took me to a junior campus (Lemotit Camp, in Kericho County). It gave me the opportunity to start.
–And why were you with your grandmother and not with your parents?
–I lived near her from a very young age. But my parents (Francis and Lilian) decided to move to another city and I stayed with my grandmother. I did it to take care of her because she was getting older. We had to help her with the farm. I and two of my sisters did it. The other four children went with my parents.
(Sandra, one of her sisters, is also an athlete. She has run the marathon in 2h22m).
Beatrice Chebet, this Monday in Barcelona
–And then, what did they live on?
–My grandfather was an army soldier. He had some money left and we all lived off of it.
–You are a police officer. Because?
–It’s good for my safety. I’ve been in the force for two years. I love working for my country.
–But does he work?
–Now I just run. But when I retire, I will.
“Maybe you don’t need it,” I observe. You earn enough to not have to work when you retire, right?
–Maybe, but for now I have to think about the police. The corps gave me the opportunity to run professionally.
My husband is my coach: at home I call him husband; In training I call him coach.”
–Do you think that women, in Kenya, have the opportunity to develop their professions like men do?
–There are those who believe that talking about it is bad. They are wrong. We have the right to work on what we want even if some don’t want it, even if some don’t want to talk about it. And it is important that we are talking about this.
–In Kenya they let you breathe? I sense that they will ask for selfies in a restaurant.
–Yeeeeah. It happens often. They ask me, ‘Can you smile at me, can you talk to me for a minute?’
Beatrice Chebet, in the center of the image, to the left of the Barcelona Sports Councilor, David Escudé, and in front of a range of athletes and the author of this piece, on Monday
–And do you like it?
-Clear. How can you not feel happy when you feel appreciated?
–You are already a legend in your country, like Joshua Cheptegei in Uganda. Cheptegei built a runway in his homeland, Kapchorwa. Do you consider the same in Kericho?
–I have a plan. I still can’t tell you when because I’m creating a foundation. One day I will have it and I will do things to help the community, and especially the poorest.
(Meanwhile, he trains two or three times a day).
–What pace do you go in a tempo run, for example?
–It depends on the distance. There are 10K days, or 14K days. In general, I move between 3m15s and 3m20s for each kilometer.
–And how many kilometers do you run in a week?
–Last week, 180.
–What do you expect in Barcelona?
–May it go well. It’s my first race running alongside men. I have expectations. But I only think about giving my best.
(Behind the scenes, they tell me that she aspires to be the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier; in the 2023 Nassos race, Chebet set the current world record of 14m13s.)
The double Olympic gold has made me a legend of Olympicism; Now I am like Tirunesh Dibaba and Sifan Hassan”
–Her husband is her coach (Peter Bii). What is day to day like? Do they spend the entire afternoon talking about athletics?
–Every moment has its moment. At home I call him husband. In training, coach. I will say that he is a good person and the best support. With him I have broken the world record of 10,000 and the two Olympic golds in Paris…
–What does someone feel when they become Olympic champions?
–Now I am a memory of Olympism, like Tirunesh Dibaba and Sifan Hassan (both double champions of the 5,000 and 10,000 in the same edition; Dibaba, in Beijing 2008; Hassan, in Tokyo 2020).
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