Banned Kenyan athletes struggling with depression, experts call for help

why are Africa countries still such a hot mess?

You’re correct that a link would have to be found to take any action against any coach or agent. WA does not have power to give anyone a 10-year sentence in prison.

One COULD assume 19 to 20 year old Ethiopian wonder kids popping a 2:04 out of nothing are clean. But why would one HAVE to?

The best athletes squeaky clean? Like Olympic Champions, World Champions, World Record Setters? LOLOL

Kenyan distance stars banned since the AIU started testing:

World Record setters: Kiptum 2019, Kipsang 2020, Kipruto 2024, Kandie 2025, Koech 2025, Chepngetich 2025
Olympic champs: Sumgong 2017, Kiprop 2017
World champs: Manangoi 2020
Marathon Majors winners: Chepchirchir 2019, Wanjiru 2019, Cherono 2022, Kipyokei 2022

To complete a true picture, you forgot to mention the dozens of (presumably) clean Kenyan champions who've been running for years with no hiccups. Cherry picking the minority (in global terms) does not present an accurate picture. That's why the people who state "ban Kenya" outright is ludicrous and a gross punishment to the (probable) innocent majority of Kenyan athletes.

It feel unprecedented to suggest that Kenya hsould be banned internationally from athletics for a time, except that that is exactly what has been done to Russia... and its worked.

And when I say worked, I have no idea if Russia's state sponsored drug program has been dismantled or just paused for a bit, but it has stopped the Savinovas of the world from taking rocket fuel and making a complete mockery of the Worlds and the Olympics.

If there was a 10-year ban on Kenya from athletics, yes a whole generation of Kenya athletes would miss out on the DL, the Worlds and the Olympics. But it would also put at least a real crimp in juiced up Kenyans showing up and making a mockery of the Majors, Worlds, Olympics on an almost daily basis. When one sees how athletics used to be viewed by the world as a sport versus how it is now, and the list of banned Kenyans continues to grow, it seems like high time for the ban to be introduced.

How to get rid of the pernicious Rosa and Bertadelli and Adan (and their like) from the sport? Choke off the money, make them liable, get the race organizers to stop inviting their athletes. Its all about money and we all know it.

You'll never fully get rid of PEDs and cheating, but you can make a bigger, better, deeper attempt at it. And just like it took a decade too long to ban Russia, its now a decade too long to ban Kenya. The insane times that the Kenyans and Ethiopians have been running have deformed marathon times to the extent that the IOC has lowered the qualification time to faster than most country's national records. That's just stupid, but it seems to make sense when any 19-year-old can show up out of nowhere and run 2:04. They have deformed races, like Jeptoo's Boston run, for all the other athletes, and wrecked the curve in distance sports.

The ban makes sense. Even if Lord Coe likely has no stomach for the political fight that will ensue.

Shush. You’re not allowed to speak about certain facts.

Cherry picking? It’s likely, as in extrememy likely, that there hasn’t been a clean Kenyan or Ethiopian medalist or record setter in over 30 years.

One of the best moves you can make with depression: Don't drink. Trust me, I did extensive research on this when I was young and had beer for blood.

I've provided plenty of lists here to prove otherwise. For example, if you look at the top 10 Kenyan marathon performers between 2016 and 2019, something like half of them have been busted. You're absolutely deluded to think that 'all the bad apples' get caught.

Coevett quote: "You're absolutely deluded to think that 'all the bad apples' get caught."

I never said that.

My main issue is that innocent, honorable Kenyan athletes should not be punished.

Going by your logic, all Nigerian citizens are scammers, all Dutch are avaricious, and all Swiss excellent time keepers.

Do you honestly believe that all (or most) Kenyan international runners are cheaters?

As one of the few who’s actually been to Kenya (and other African countries) I will say I would not be surprised if every member of their national teams is a doper.

You know that's silly comparing an entire population of over 100 million to maybe 1,000 Kenyan distance runners, a sizeable proportion of whom get busted with testing in a system that WADA declared only a few weeks ago to be 'non-compliant' with their basic standards.

I disproved your statement "The best athletes are probably squeaky clean people". No cherry picking, just a reference from a letsrun thread about banned Kenyans.

If you factor in that most dopers never get caught, it's hard to claim that this is only a minority. Do the math: how many Kenyan world record setters were in the testing pool 2017 - 2025? 6 (!!!) have been banned so far, 4 thereof in the last 2 years. The best of the best of the best. Chepngetich's record was arguable the most, ummmm, outstanding one.

And again, your original claim was quite different.

By that line of reasoning then innocent, honorable, Russian athletes should not be punished.

Absolutely - there are Russian athletes, and probably the majority, who should not be punished, just like there are Russians who are completely against the war that Russia (President Putin) launched against the Ukraine but they can't talk because if they talked you know what would happen.

The world is a complex place and unfortunately most humans don't really think in a logical or clear fashion.

"Some used the ban period to pursue education or farming, others to coach younger runners. One athlete said the experience had “opened your mind and made you think outside the box.”

Young runners coached by sanctioned athletes?

That's a good answer and I go back and forth with my opinion. I know that in grade school I absolutely detested when our entire class had to stay for detention or do punishment assignments when fewer than half of us were doing whatever it was that got the nuns to give out the punishment and I have the same reaction, sort of, to banning an entire nation for the misdeeds of some athletes.

On the other hand there are Russian athletes competing, just not as Russians. I know there are certain procedures they need to follow for that to happen. I don't see why you couldn't ban Kenya but create steps to allow some Kenyans to compete. What I am sure about is that the current "system," or lack of one, that allows doped Kenyans to win piles of money which they keep even if they get caught and banned. That's at least as unfair to clean athletes who should genuinely have won those prizes as it would be for clean Kenyans who would suffer if the country is banned would.

I do think this whole discussion of banning Kenya is purely academic. I think we'll have warp drive before we have a Kenyan ban if World Athletics continues as the governing body for the sport.

Good to see your ban is over. Next one will be coming soon