Iten: Home of Champions
In western Kenya, perched atop the Great Rift Valley, there lies a small farming town whose population makes up less than 0.1% of the national figure. You would be forgiven for thinking that the country is brimming with communities like these; after all, its economy has been built on its agricultural sector, meaning that most people do indeed live in small farming villages. However, there is only one community like Iten in Kenya.
For those who have ever watched a distance running event on the international stage, you likely witnessed African dominance at its finest. While there have been some athletes hailing from outside the continent who have managed to best their African counterparts, these performances are few and far between. To put it into perspective, the 5000m and 10,000m events at the past five Olympic Games have offered up a total of 60 distance-running medals: 57 of them have been awarded to African-born athletes. Every major long-distance running world record is not only held by an African athlete, but specifically an East African athlete. In fact, prior to Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda claiming the men’s 5000m and 10,000m world records in 2020, every long-distance running world record was shared between just two countries: Kenya and Ethiopia.
East Africans have enjoyed one of the longest and most consistent periods of dominance in sport with their success in distance running.
While Ethiopia has a rich and exciting running history, the focus of this article is Kenya, and they are certainly a worthy recipient of this focus. There is an argument to be made that Kenyans are the best distance runners in the world, even compared to their Ethiopian neighbours. The current Olympic champions in the marathon are both Kenyan, as are more than half of the reigning World Marathon Major champions. Kenya has won two-thirds of all global cross-country titles in the modern era and has won almost twice as many Olympic medals in athletics as Ethiopia. Interestingly, every athlete who has contributed to Kenya’s success was born and raised within a 50-mile radius of Iten.
If you do a search on Google Images for Iten, many of the results will show a single arch that stands at the entrance to the town. Flanked by the colours of the Kenyan flag, the arch has a message painted across the top: “WELCOME TO ITEN: HOME OF CHAMPIONS”. If you had to describe Iten in three words, “Home of Champions” are three very good choices.
The arch at the entrance of Iten.
What about this village and the surrounding areas make their residents such good runners? Some obvious physical reasons stand out. Iten sits at 2400m above sea level, which is more or less the perfect altitude for endurance athletes to train. Snaking their way through the town are endless dirt roads that provide an excellent running surface, with the uneven trails slowly strengthening the athlete’s feet and ankles and the softness of the dirt reducing their recovery time and injury frequency. Their food is also the subject of envy: almost exclusively eating local, fresh produce, the people of Iten have one of the simplest and healthiest diets in the world. But none of these factors can explain the sheer dominance that the runners of Iten have enjoyed for over half a century. To unlock the secret to their success, you must look at something else: their culture.
Despite its uncanny ability to produce world-class runners, Iten is still a relatively poor village with very few career options outside of farming. But Colm O’Connell, known as the Godfather of Kenyan running, doesn’t see this as a negative:
“You can compare it on another level to soccer in Brazil, ice hockey in Canada or basketball in Philadelphia. It is a way out.”
A large group of athletes out for a training run in Iten.
The fact that running has the potential to lift the people of Iten out of poverty might very well be the reason it flourishes so vibrantly there. Even the likes of the world’s greatest marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge, whose hugely successful career has turned him into a multi-millionaire, still have a reverent respect for the sport. The marathon legend continues to live and train as he always has, claiming, “You live simply, you train hard, and live an honest life. Then you are free.” And while Kipchoge may be one of the more famous proponents of this humble lifestyle, his views are shared by many in Iten. Even outsiders have long since recognised the value of the Kenyan mindset. Mo Farah, a four-time Olympic champion and six-time world champion from Britain, attributes much of his early success to his decision to live with a group of Kenyan athletes in London. In his 2016 biopic, Farah reflects on why he decided to live with the Kenyans: “I needed to do the same thing as what they were doing – you eat, sleep, and train. If I wanted to be a champion, if I wanted to beat these guys, I needed to do what they were doing.” Since then, the Briton has spent much of his time in Iten on training camps in search of a running culture that can seemingly only be found in East Africa.
Mo Farah (R) leads a small group of professional athletes while on a training camp in Iten.
For years, many have tried to explain Kenya’s rich tradition of distance running excellence. For those who have been fortunate enough to visit the enchanting village of Iten, they will have been met with ochre-coloured running highways, traditional Kenyan meals, and high-altitude training centres. But more importantly, they would have witnessed a tenacious discipline and genuine love for the sport and the opportunities it presents. This culture is what makes Iten such a special location for distance runners and why athletes from around the world flock to an unassuming farming village for their training. The physiological benefits from being there are plentiful, but they are easily outweighed by the people and the history. While Iten may resemble one of many sleepy communities dotted throughout the Great Rift Valley, its unique culture has transformed it into the undisputed distance running capital of the world.