RIP: Kenya's 1st Olympic medallist - Wilson Chuma Kiprugut (1964 800 bronze, 1968 800 silver), dies at 84

Here are a couple of articles from the local papers:

nation.africa

Kenya's first Olympic medallist Wilson Chumo passes on

Kenya's first Olympics medallist, Wilson Kiprugut Chumo, is dead.

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the-star.co.ke

Athletics team mourns death of first Olympic medallist Chumo

@thestarkenya

The veteran athlete was 84 years old at the time of his death.

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Great find and share. I’m learning something new here.

It is genuinely refreshing to see you post quality running content like this instead of cheap political trolling.

Keep it up 👍

I'm not an old timer who was around at that time, but I was aware of him from watching the Olympic 800 from 1964. Snell won the race masterfully, but Kiprugut certainly played a big role in the race. From our current perspective it doesn't seem surprising to see the Kenyan guy towards the front, but at the time I suppose it must have looked different based on the traditional leaders in the middle distances.

Kiprugut ran even better at Mexico '68. He pushed the great Ralph Doubell to tie Snell's wr and was only 0.2s behind after leading all the way. Doubell (who later retired from chronic injuries) ran the perfect race. He had to, to beat Kiprugut.

QFE

I recently talked to a music journalist, specialised on old rock/pop music. I talked to him about the Beatles and the impact which they have had. He has never heard of the band before but was pleased that I informed him about those guys.

Biwott, Temu and Kogo were largely unknown before their medals in Mexico. They'd all had some success at the 1966 Commonwealth Games but really not much else. Keino, on the other hand, was turning up and winning major races as early as 1965. You'd read about him in newspapers and Sports Illustrated and maybe see him if you went to a major meet. He travelled the world racing like Ryun, Clarke, Snell, etc. did. He was world ranked every year. And Ryun was such a heavy favorite to win in Mexico that it was big news, especially in the US, when he didn't. So Keino became kind of a giant killer. The other guys all beat pre race favorites but none of those favorites were anywhere near as heavy favorites as Ryun nor as popular in the US. And then Keino goes on winning races after Mexico and gets another gold in Munich while Biwott, Kogo, and Temu were effectively gone.

Incredible.

Rojo , you coached at Cornell and didn’t know a 🇰🇪 Kenyan ran for them back in the late 50’s or early 60’s.

worldathletics.org

Wilson KIPRUGUT | Profile | World Athletics

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Wilson Kiprugut was a 400/800 runner in Tokyo. Where are results for him interceding years....1966 for example.

Couldn't imagine he would just disappear between Olympics.

I’m surprised you didn’t know about him… you just had to look up the Tokyo results on Wikipedia!

But seriously, I think his bronze was seen as a little random and not indicative of any sea change in athletics at the time. We Americans did not watch the ‘66 Commonwealth Games where Kenya went ham on the distance races, and Kiprugut got a silver in the 800. In 1968 there were Kenyans and Ethiopians medaling left and right but it was easy to chalk it up to the altitude. But then in 1972 those countries were prominent again in every distance final (other than our beloved 5,000 ironically) and Kenya and Ethiopia couldn’t be ignored. Kip Keino became the face of the whole explosion in part because of his big win over Ryun, but also because he won four medals altogether, including another gold in 1972, whereas Kiprugut and Naftali Temu (Kenya’s first GOLD medalist) had faded or retired by then, and Avenue Bikila, the first Ethiopian Olympic champion, was dead by 1973. Keino was present across the full spectrum of 1964-72 when Africans really started showing out, so he’s the one we remember best.