KIPYEGON Faith

General
EXTRA MOTIVATION
She took a two-year maternity break from running between 2017 and 2019 to give birth to her daughter Alyn. She says her daughter is an extra source of motivation. "It was always my plan to have a baby in 2018 and take a break from the sport. I knew this was my resting time. She has changed my life a lot. Her birth was a really great moment and I have enjoyed being a mum. I think my daughter gave me a strong mind because we play around with her. She acts as an extra motivation for me." She returned to training in January 2019. "I'm so happy coming back, being strong. The first session back was painful, but that is life. I had to start again. I started jogging for 30 minutes and slowly the speed returned. To tell the truth it was not very easy to come back because you have to balance both as a mother and as an athlete." (tokyo2020.org, 16 Sep 2020; worldathletics.org, 15 Jul 2019; olympicchannel.com, 01 Jun 2019)

CHANGING COACH
In 2019 she chose to change coach from Bram Som to Patrick Sang. The decision came after she moved from Keringet to Eldoret to be closer with her husband. "It made sense to join Patrick because I now live in Eldoret [45 minutes away from Sang's training group in Kaptagat]. I knew Patrick before I came here and Bram and Patrick still talk to one another about my training. To be honest, my training now is quite similar to what it was before. I really enjoy being with Patrick, he is a really nice person and a caring coach." (tokyo2020.org, 16 Sep 2020; worldathletics.org, 15 Jul 2019)

FUTURE PLAN
She plans to switch her focus to the 5000m event after competing at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. "Hopefully I want to defend my title before I shift to the 5000m, because I want to shift to 5000m in the future. I want to defend my title at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo and hopefully I will do my best." (tokyo2020.org, 16 Sep 2020)