Olympic gold medalist and two-time World Half Marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir is a long-distance runner from Kenya. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, she won the gold medal in the women’s marathon. At the 2016 World Half Marathon Championships and the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships, Jepchirchir was twice victorious. She set a personal best time for the half marathon, 1:05:06, on February 10, 2017 in the United Arab Emirates, which was once a world record.
Jepchirchir began cross country running at the start of 2014 and took second place at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships. In 2016, Jepchirchir’s time of 67:21 minutes set a course record at the Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon in April. She shattered two world records at the 2017 RAK Half Marathon. She established the 20K world record at 61:40 minutes and knocked three seconds off Florence Kiplagat’s half marathon record of 65:06 minutes. However, Joyciline Jepkosgei, who finished third at the RAK event, broke both of her world records the following month.
Jepchirchir was awarded the gold medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics with a time of 2:27.20. She recorded a time of 2:22:39 to win the New York City Marathon in 2021, making history by becoming the first individual to win both the Olympic gold medal and the New York City Marathon in the same calendar year. She finished first in the Boston Marathon in 2022 with a time of 2:21:02.
