Paris to name sports venue in honor of slain Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei

On Sunday, her former partner set her on fire in a fatal attack, according to police in Trans-Nzoia county in western Kenya. Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, told The Washington Post that it happened in front of her two children and that she had reported the man to the police several times for domestic violence before the attack.

Cheptegei succumbed to her injuries on Thursday, sending shock waves throughout the world that put a spotlight on domestic violence against female athletes in Kenya.

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, said at a news conference Friday that “Paris will not forget her,” Agence France-Presse reported.

“We saw her — her beauty, her strength, her freedom — and it was in all likelihood her beauty, strength and freedom which were intolerable for the person who committed this murder,” Hidalgo said, according to the AFP.

The city of Paris expressed support for Cheptegei’s family in a social media statement the same day. It did not provide further details about the venue to be named in Cheptegei’s honor.

Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen, Kenya’s sports cabinet secretary, said Cheptegei’s death was “a stark reminder that we must do more to combat gender-based violence in our society, which in recent years has reared its ugly head in elite sporting circles.”

Cheptegei is one of at least three female long-distance runners who have been killed in Kenya in alleged domestic violence murders over the past three years. Experts say that the earnings available to a successful female athlete, which can be high compared with the average Kenyan salary, sometimes attract men who want to control their careers and finances.

Agnes Jebet Tirop broke the 10-kilometer women-only world record in 2021, one month before she was stabbed to death at 25 by her husband, Ibrahim Rotich, Kenyan authorities allege. A Kenyan organization that combats gender-based violence was named Tirop’s Angels in her honor.

Damaris Muthee Mutua, a Youth Olympic Games bronze medalist, was 28 years old when she was found strangled in 2022. Police launched a manhunt for her boyfriend, who fled.

Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. secretary general, said Thursday that Cheptegei’s killing illustrated the global problem of gender-based violence, noting that a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member every 11 minutes on average, according U.N. figures.

“So, if this briefing lasts half an hour, on average, three women have become victims of femicide while we are talking,” he said, adding that “a different world is possible.”

Katharine Houreld and Rael Ombuor contributed to this report.