Kenya's 10,000m team for Paris Olympics 2024: Full list of men's and women's runners ft. Nicholas Kipkorir, Beatrice Chebet

A six-member Kenyan team has been announced to participate in the men’s and women’s 10,000m for the Paris Olympics 2024. The team will be headlined by Nicholas Kipkorir in the men’s division and Beatrice Chebet in the women’s category.

Kipkorir, the 2022 Diamond League champion over the 5,000m distance, is one of the names to watch out for in the men’s 10,000m for Kenya. Besides him, the men’s team comprises the likes of Daniel Mateiko and Benard Kibet.

Daniel Mateiko is another athlete who has been picked to represent the nation. Mateiko is known for his prowess in the half-marathon, being the 13th fastest in the event. Benard Kibet, the fifth-placed runner at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, completes the men’s squad.

In the women’s event, the world record holder Beatrice Chebet will enter the Olympics as a pre-race favorite. The contingent also includes the likes of Lilian Kasait and Margaret Chelimo. Kasait is a multiple World Cross Country Championships medalist, while Chelimo has bagged two medals at the stage of World Athletics Championships in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

The Diamond League leg, Prefontaine Classic served as the qualifying event for the Kenyan runners for the 10,000m event. Mateiko (26:50.81), Kipkorir (26:50.94), and Kibet (26:51.09) came first, second, and third in the men’s race.

While Chebet established the world record with a sensational 28:54.14. Kasait and Chelimo finished third and fourth respectively, with times of 29:26.89 and 29:27.59.

Complete list of athletes who will represent Kenya in the 10,000m at the Olympics

Men

Daniel Mateiko, Nicholas Kipkorir, Benard Kibet

Women

Beatrice Chebet, Lilian Kasait, Margaret Chelimo

Kenya’s 10,000m team’s performance at the Summer Olympics

From left to right, medalists Salah Hissou of Morocco, Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Paul Tergat of Kenya at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, 29th July 1996. (Photo by Gary M. Prior/Getty Images)

In the men’s category, Kenya ranks seventh in the list of the most successful nations in the 10,000m event, collecting a total of eight medals, including one gold, four silver, and three bronze.

The solitary gold medal was bagged by Naftali Temu in the 1968 Mexico Olympics, while Paul Tergat earned multiple medals for the nation, winning the silver medal twice in the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games.

Meanwhile, the country is placed sixth as they have achieved four medals, including two silver and two bronze medals, since the introduction of the women’s event in the 1988 Seoul Games. Vivian Cheruiyot is the most dominant female Kenyan runner in the discipline as she collected a silver and a bronze medal in the 2012 and 2016 editions of the quadrennial Games.