The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the celebration of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, originally scheduled for that summer. In March 2020, given the international pandemic situation, it was decided to postpone them by a year, finally taking place from July 23 to August 8, 2021. This was the first time they were postponed in peacetime.
This led to strict safety measures to protect athletes, officials, and involved personnel, including regular COVID-19 testing, mandatory mask-wearing, social distancing, and limited physical contact. Movements outside designated areas were restricted, and interactions with the public limited.
As a result, the audience was mostly local, with many competitions held behind closed doors. This had a considerable economic impact, due to the lack of revenue from ticket sales and international visitors’ spending on travel and accommodations.
Athletes were also greatly affected, not only by the restrictions on physical activity that were imposed for months in some places, affecting their training plans, but also by the disruption of their schedules, which required them to extend or delay their peak performance by a whole year.
Despite these challenges, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were successfully held, demonstrating Japan’s adaptability and competence in the face of an unprecedented global crisis.
The women’s marathon was scheduled for August 7, 2021, in Sapporo due to the high temperatures in Tokyo. The main favorites included the Kenyan trio of Brigid Kosgei, world record holder with a time of 2:14:04, Ruth Chepngetich, the 2019 world champion, and Peres Jepchirchir, world half marathon champion in 2016 and 2020.
Peres Jepchirchir was born on September 27, 1993, into a humble family in Kenya. She started running in primary school, and her talent was quickly recognized, leading her to train seriously during her teenage years. Jepchirchir excelled in long-distance and middle-distance races before making her marathon debut. Her rise in the athletics world was meteoric, winning the 2016 World Half Marathon Championship in Cardiff, setting a world record in the process, and again in 2020 in Prague (1:05:34) and at the World Championships in Gdynia (1:05:16). Jepchirchir’s success in the half marathon led to her selection to represent Kenya at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
With the race starting at 6:00 AM, the conditions were already hot and humid, adding an extra challenge for the competitors.
The race began with a compact group at a conservative pace, with Kenyans Brigid Kosgei, Peres Jepchirchir, and Ruth Chepngetich at the front, joined by contenders like Molly Seidel from the USA and Lonah Chemtai Salpeter from Israel. The runners stayed together in a tight pack, aware of the importance of saving energy in the early stages.
As the kilometers passed, the intensity of the heat began to take its toll. The leading pack gradually thinned out, with the front group crossing the halfway point in 1:15:14.
Around kilometer 25, Peres Jepchirchir and Brigid Kosgei significantly increased the pace, starting to open a gap with the rest, although Seidel remained close. The two Kenyans reached kilometer 30 in 1:42:00, with Seidel just seconds behind. Shortly after, Salpeter and Chepngetich dropped out of the race.
From this point, Jepchirchir began to pull away from Kosgei, gaining a small lead of only 8 seconds at kilometer 40, which she crossed in 2:16:56. Seidel, nearly 2 minutes behind, was out of the gold medal battle.
The final result confirmed gold for Jepchirchir in 2:27:20, and the silver medal for her teammate Kosgei in 2:27:36, once again showcasing Kenyan dominance in the distance (Kenyan athletes also finished in 4th and 6th positions). The bronze went to Seidel with 2:27:46, after significantly closing the gap with the Kenyans in the final kilometers, in what was her first Olympic appearance.
As for Jepchirchir, she finished 2021 with another major victory in the New York Marathon. In 2022, she continued her winning streak by triumphing in Boston, before breaking the world record at the 2024 London Marathon with a time of 2:16:16, making her one of the favorites for the Paris Olympics this summer.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peres_Jepchirchir
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athletics_at_the_2020_Summer_Olympics_%E2%80%93_Women%27s_marathon
