Rebecca Cheptegei met a tragic demise following a heated conflict with her boyfriend. News outlets and statements explaining what happened have been shared online.
Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei, 33, tragically passed away after she was admitted to Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County. The Ugandan marathon runner had been admitted to the hospital following a vicious attack by her boyfriend.
Rebecca Cheptegei competing with other runners during the World Athletics Championships Budapest 2023 in Budapest, Hungary on August 26, 2023 | Source: Getty Images
Dr. Owen Menach — the acting CEO of MTRH and Director of Clinical Services and Surgery — confirmed that Cheptegei died at 5 a.m. in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) from what he dubbed full organ failure.
Expressing his sorrow concerning her death, Dr. Menach spoke about how sad he and other medical professionals are, adding, “[We] were doing our best to save her life.”
Cheptegei’s family member, Dr. Tony Sabila, confirmed the date of her passing as this morning, September 5, while speaking to Nation Sport.
“It is true that we lost our sister this morning although the doctors tried to save her life and I was there personally,” divulged Dr. Sabila.
Cheptegei had been in the ICU as a result of suffering severe burns from open flames that overtook her whole body. Nation Sport revealed that her burns covered 80% of her body.
Due to the extent of the burns, Cheptegei was fully sedated and intubated. She was also on full life support for blood, fluids, and medication, and had to use a ventilator for breathing.
Adding further insult to injury is the fact that yesterday, September 4, the Kenyan government announced that Cheptegei would be transported to Nairobi via an airlift for specialized treatment, which ended up not happening.
When the plan was still supposed to happen, the Principal Secretary for Sports, Peter Tum, said there had been discussions with Peter Ogwang, who is the Sports Minister of Uganda. Following this discussion, an agreement was reached for the specialized treatment and care plan.
Athletics Kenya President and Vice-President of World Athletics, Jack Tuwei, weighed in on the tragedy, condemning what happened and expressing how no one deserves such a thing to happen to them. His statement also revealed the fact that Cheptegei’s boyfriend burned her over a property dispute.
“As a federation, we want to condemn this in the strongest possible terms because this is not the way we should live,” noted Tuwei at the end of his message.
Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei giving a press brief following the death of world marathon record-holder Kelvin Kiptum in Nairobi, Kenya on February 12, 2024 | Source: Getty Images
Ugandan lawyer and professor Donald Rukare took to X to pen his own statement addressing the athlete’s death.
He expressed, “We have learnt of the sad passing on of our Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei OLY following a vicious attack by her boyfriend. May her gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women.”
The rest of his message went on to discuss how senseless and cowardly the attack was. He concluded by saying that although Cheptegei’s life has been lost, her legacy will live on. More details concerning the story will follow shortly.
