Eliud Kiphchoge - is he the humble person hyped up to be?

Terrible take.

OP was quotes, facts, and questions. No opinions. No takes

Good take. I agree. It’s a very fake persona. He was very mad when Kiptum took his WR.

I don't think it's unfounded. His comments about Kitpum potentially breaking 2 kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

Humble is a state of mind indicative of a high degree of narcissism

You wished you had any of the failed results Kipchoge had in his very long career.

Very much unliked by most Kenyan athletes - not out of jealousy but because he's not likable.

Sort of like Leonard Korir here in the states. Nobody likes Korir nor his sister.

I always assumed the persona was somewhat fake and crafted by Nike.

I hate to be prejudice but that's just the way Nike comes across and I've seen no evidence to the contrary.

I much prefer Bekele. He admits he gets lazy and fat and burned out. More relatable, believable, and easier to root for.

I don't think the majority of us will ever know what he's like in his personal life. Kipchoge is probably one of the closest things we have to a celebrity in the running world- any perception we have is largely a result of marketing, assuming he does his job well and something weird and terrible doesn't come out.

I do often think there's a kernel of truth to media personas, though- it's easier and usually more consistent to find a personality trait that's marketable and turn that up to 11 than to manufacture an entirely different person, especially when you're dealing with athletes who aren't necessarily social geniuses to begin with.

I don't really have a problem with the quotes in the OP- if you're a well-recognised and generally successful athlete the media are going to ask you about it when you don't live up to expectations. You can either give them an explanation or a hand-wavy 'just didn't have the legs today,' and there's a lot of dumb little things that can affect marathon performance especially when you're amongst the best in the world and pretty much need everything to go to plan. People read way too much into the Kiptum thing IMO.