Paris pays tribute to Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei who died after allegedly being set on fire by her boyfriend
By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — The Paris Games paid tribute to Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei after her death on Thursday, days after allegedly being burned by her boyfriend.
A eulogy was played at the 2024 Paralympics after the T54 and T12 marathons on Sunday, together with a photo of Cheptegei on the big screen near the finish line at the Esplanades des Invalides.
The crowd then joined in a minute’s applause in memory of the runner.
Following Sunday’s marathons, several participants also paid their tributes to Cheptegei.
Marcel Hug, who won his third consecutive T54 marathon gold medal, stressed the importance for the Paralympic movement to send a strong “message out against violence.”
“It’s terrible, and we should really try to avoid violence like this,” the Swiss runner told Olympics.com. “I didn’t personally know her, but she was a good person, and it’s so sad. It’s a good opportunity to think of her here at the Paralympics. We should send a message out against violence like this.”
Hug’s fellow Swiss wheelchair racer, Catherine Debrunner, also expressed her shock after winning her first Paralympic T54 marathon gold.
“I don’t really have the words for it. We should not take it for granted what we can do here.”
On Friday, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said Cheptegei would be honored by the French capital by naming a sports facility after her.
Cheptegei, 33, who lived in Kenya, had been in a critical condition after suffering burns on 75% of her body following last Sunday’s attack at her house in the western Trans Nzoia County. Her death was confirmed on X by the Kenyan Olympic Team on Thursday.
Cheptegei finished 44th in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics weeks ago.
Trans Nzoia County police commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said earlier this week that the athlete had been doused in petrol by her boyfriend, Dickson Ndiema, who stormed her house with a jerry can of gasoline and set fire to her after a disagreement over land. Ndiema, who was also burned, is being treated at a hospital in the city of Eldoret.
A medical official at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital where Cheptegei was being treated told CNN affiliate Citizen TV on Thursday that she suffered multi-organ failure late Wednesday.
Cheptegei is the third elite female athlete to be killed in Kenya in the last three years.
In 2021, 25-year-old Kenyan Olympic runner Agnes Tirop was found dead in her Iten home in the country’s Elgeyo-Marakwet County with stab wounds in her neck. Her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, was charged with murder after Kenyan prosecutors accused him of killing her.
Months later, another Kenyan athlete Damaris Mutua, 28, was found strangled in a home with a pillow over her face. Mutua had just placed third at a half marathon in Angola earlier that month. Authorities said her boyfriend was the main suspect.
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CNN’s Nimi Princewill contributed reporting.
