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Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei dies after setting herself on fire

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Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei dies after setting herself on fire

Rebecca Cheptegei, who made her Olympic debut at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, died on Thursday from injuries and burns. Police say she was set on fire by a man, believed to be her ex-boyfriend.

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Ugandan marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics, died from burns four days after her ex-boyfriend poured gasoline on her and set her on fire.

The death of 33-year-old Cheptegea, who was rushed to Moi University and Specialist Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, on Sunday with burns covering more than 75 percent of her body, was announced by the hospital director and the Uganda Athletics Federation.

Cheptegei, who was in the hospital’s intensive care unit, “died at 5:30 this morning after her organs failed,” Owen Menach, the hospital’s senior director of clinical services, told Reuters. A full report into the circumstances of her death will be released later in the day, he said.

“We have learned of the sad death of our Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei… after a brutal attack by her boyfriend,” Donald Rukare, president of the Uganda Olympic Committee, said in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “May her gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women.”

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Who was Rebecca Cheptegei?

Cheptegei, who was born and raised in Cheminy, Uganda, trained in Trans-Nzoia County in western Kenya. She bought and developed land in Kinyoro, Kenya, to make it easier and cheaper to train in Kenya, reports Kenyan newspaper The Standard.

Cheptegei made her Olympic debut in Paris, finishing 44th in the women’s marathon.

She began her career in 2010 and has competed in 1,500 meters, 10,000 meters, half marathons and marathons. She represented Uganda at the 2011 and 2013 Cross Country World Championships in Punta Umbria and Bydgoszcz, The Standard reports.

In 2022, she won the Padua Marathon in Italy, according to Kenyan news website TUKO.co.ke. Cheptegei also won gold at the 2022 World Mountain Running and Cross-Country Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the BBC reported.

Cheptegei clocked her fastest marathon time of 2:22:47 when she finished second in the Abu Dhabi Marathon in December 2022. According to World Athletics statistics, this time makes her the second fastest Ugandan marathon runner of all time.

Her mother, Agnes Ndiema-Cheptegei, described her daughter as “a good child, very polite and not causing any major problems,” Reuters reported.

What happened to Rebecca Cheptegei?

Police said Cheptegei was attacked by her boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema Marangach, who sneaked into Cheptegei’s home in Endebess, western Kenya, while she and her two children were at church before the attack, according to Kenyan and Ugandan newspapers.

“Upon his return, Dickson, who had obtained gasoline, began pouring it on Rebecca before setting her on fire,” Jeremiah Ole Kosiom, Trans-Nzoia County Police Commander, told The Star newspaper in Nairobi, Kenya. “The two were rescued by neighbors who put out the fire and took them to hospital.”

Marangach was also burned in the attack, which police described as a domestic dispute. He remains in intensive care but is in a stable condition, the BBC reported.

Joseph Cheptegei, Cheptegei’s father, said her daughter and Marangach had been estranged for a long time and were embroiled in a land dispute over her land in western Kenya. Both were due to appear before the Kenya Criminal Investigation Directorate, The Standard reported.

“The land … has brought problems,” she told reporters on Thursday, adding that she was asking the government to protect her children and property “so that no one enters her house and takes anything.”

Kosiom confirmed that Rebecca Cheptegei and Marangach had been arguing over her land, adding that police were continuing to investigate.

Rebecca Cheptegei is the third female athlete to die in Kenya in three years

Cheptegei was the third competitive athlete killed in Kenya since October 2021.

Peter Ogwang, Uganda’s minister of state for sports, said Kenyan authorities were investigating the killing, which highlighted the problem of violence against women in the East African country.

Kenyan Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen called her death a loss “for the entire region”.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder that we must do more to combat gender-based violence in our society, which has become more prevalent in elite sporting circles in recent years,” he said in a statement.

According to 2022 Kenyan government data, nearly 34% of Kenyan girls and women aged 15-49 have experienced physical violence. The study also found that 41% of married women have experienced violence.

According to a 2022 report by UN Women and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Drugs and Crime, African countries collectively recorded the highest number of femicides, both in absolute numbers and relative to the size of the female population on the continent.

In April 2022, Kenyan-born distance runner Damaris Muthee, who represented Bahrain, was found strangled in a home in Iten, Kenya, where she had been training, according to the BBC.

In October 2021, 25-year-old Olympic runner Agnes Tirop, a rising star in Kenya’s ultra-competitive track and field scene, was found dead in her Iten home with multiple stab wounds to the neck. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, has pleaded not guilty to her murder. That case is ongoing.

After Tirop’s murder, athletes founded the group Tirop’s Angels to combat domestic violence. One of its founders, Joan Chelimo, told Reuters that female athletes were at high risk of abuse and violence from men hungry for their money.

“They fall into the traps of predators who pose as lovers in their lives,” she said.

Collaborators: Reuters

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider.

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