Still so far to run
Women's sports are enjoying a golden moment. But the murder of runner Rebecca Cheptegei is a reminder that high regard for female athletes is far from universal.
Before COVID knocked me sideways last week, I had planned to write a column last Sunday praising the on- and off-field contributions of soccer player Alex Morgan after she played her final game before retiring.
Morgan left the U.S. women’s national team and women’s professional soccer in better shape than they were before she arrived on the scene, which is about the best any athlete can hope for. And she did it not merely by scoring goals, as nicely summed up here by Kevin Baxter of the Los Angeles Times. She fought for better pay and better treatment for female soccer players, and although she was far from alone in waging those battles, she wholeheartedly plunged into tedious negotiations and took risks that, as a star player, she didn’t have to take.
Her elegantly extended pinkie finger as she mimed drinking a cup of tea after scoring a goal against England during the 2019 women’s World Cup was a stroke of genius, and it will live on as an everlasting meme. Morgan, who is pregnant with her second child, deserved all of the many accolades she received. Her influence will be felt for years to come, not only as a role model but through the financial and strategic investments in women’s sports she has long been making with the aim of boosting opportunities for girls and women in sports.
It is partly because of her, and others, that female athletes and sports leagues in North America are enjoying record franchise sales prices and record popularity, a surge greatly boosted by Caitlin Clark’s spectacular rookie season in the WNBA. Women competing in individual sports such as tennis and golf have made competitive and commercial breakthroughs for decades and have become stars, but the real change happening now is the growth in stability and credibility of women’s team sports.
Women’s teams and leagues have in years past struggled to draw fans and achieve solid financial footing. Those teams and leagues are more entrenched now, more a regular part of the sports landscape, more visible in the media as part of the daily chatter that fuels screaming “debates” on radio talk shows. Women’s sports have earned respect, at long last.
But attitudes toward female athletes are still horribly and sometimes tragically ignorant in other parts of the world.
Uganda-born runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who lived and trained in Kenya, didn’t dominate her sport or win any Olympic gold medals. A mother of two, she had won a downhill race at the 2022 world mountain and trail running championships, a year after she had run her first marathon. She finished 44th in the recent women’s Paris Olympic marathon, an impressive achievement but one that left her far away from the spotlight.
But we should all know about her and give her as much respect as we’d give any athlete who won a fistful of medals in Paris or elsewhere.
Cheptegei will be buried on Saturday in Bukwo, in the eastern part of Uganda, after she died as the result of being doused with gasoline and set afire on Sept. 1 by an ex-partner who apparently was jealous of her talent and the relative financial prosperity she earned through her running career. She lingered in a hospital for several days before she succumbed to her injuries on Sept. 5. She was scheduled to be buried with military honors. She was 33 years old.
Dickson Ndiema, her accused attacker, died last week in Eldoret, Kenya, as the consequence burns he suffered on about 40 percent of his own body while he went after Cheptegei. They reportedly had disagreed over a plot of land she had purchased in Kenya in order to be closer to a training center for distance runners.
It’s unfathomable that one human being could do that to another, but Cheptegei was the third female Kenyan runner known to have been killed in the past few years. Agnes Tirop, a world record holder at 10 kilometers, a 2015 world cross country champion and two-time world medalist at 10,000 meters, was stabbed to death in her home in 2021. Her husband was charged with her murder. Damaris Mutua, who was born in Kenya but competed for Bahrain, died in 2022 in what was suspected to be a domestic violence incident.
In writing about Cheptegei’s death, the New York Times noted that, “Africa had the highest rate of gender-based killings of women of any continent in 2022, the United Nations has reported, estimating that 20,000 women were killed there, though the true figure may be even higher.” Think about that for a minute without feeling a crushing sense of loss and despair.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, vowed to honor Cheptegei by dedicating a sports venue in her honor, “so that her memory and her story remains among us and helps us carry the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics—the international governing body of track and field—also mourned Cheptegei’s death.
“Our sport has lost a talented athlete in the most tragic and unthinkable circumstances,” he said in a statement. “Rebecca was an incredibly versatile runner who still had lots left to give on the roads, mountains and cross country trails.
“I have been in touch with our Council Members in Africa to see how we can help not only in our capacity as governing body of the sport Rebecca competed in, but to assess how our safeguarding policies might be enhanced to include abuse outside of the sport, and bringing together stakeholders from all areas of athletics to combine forces to protect our female athletes to the best of our abilities from abuse of all kinds.”
The gestures and statements from Hidalgo and Coe are commendable and respectful. The very least that should be done. But it will take more than that to change minds and attitudes enough to allow every female athlete to feel safe enough to soar.
Beautifully written. Thanks.