Kipchoge is 23 According to Time Magazine

Dude, he's 19 right now. Learn to read pal.

I went to Kenya this summer, I saw Kipchoge training, and talked with fellow runners of his, he is 24-25, no way is he the 19 or 20 year old he claims to be, it doesn't bother me because he is fast either way, but he's in his mid 20's.

ashjkf wrote:I went to Kenya this summer, I saw Kipchoge training, and talked with fellow runners of his, he is 24-25, no way is he the 19 or 20 year old he claims to be, it doesn't bother me because he is fast either way, but he's in his mid 20's.

What makes you think he's lying, specifically? Did his fellow runners say he's older? If so, what reason(s) did they give for thinking he's older?

They don't suspect that he is older, they know for a fact he is, I'm not really going to argue the point with you, because he is 25, and that's the truth.

Duh wrote:

Dude, he's 19 right now. Learn to read pal.

Dude, the article says he is 19 in 2004 and graduated high school in 2000. Dude, if you do the math, he was 15 in 2000 when he graduated high school.

Dude, keep your inane comments to yourself you stupid moron.

ashjkf wrote:

They don't suspect that he is older, they know for a fact he is, I'm not really going to argue the point with you, because he is 25, and that's the truth.

Who's arguing? You said he's lying, so I simply asked why you think so. Elaborate. How do "they know for a fact" that he's older? Did they go to school with him? Are they relatives of his? How?

And while you were there, why didn't you ask them how to get skinny calves? They're the experts on skinny calves, after all.

Franz wrote:

What makes you think he's lying, specifically? Did his fellow runners say he's older? If so, what reason(s) did they give for thinking he's older?

The medical infrastructure in Kenya (including things like medical records and hospital files) responsible for things like birth certificates simply does not exist with the same accuracy as it does in a Western nation.

You may remember another East African, extremely poor nation (Ethiopia) and their men's junior winner this year who was supposedly 18 years old. Everyone who watched the race knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the runner was well, well older than 18.

The same with Kipchoge. I have heard (call it hearsay, but I have heard it from a number of people and I am positive if you looked into it you would find the same) that Kipchoge did graduate high school in 1999 or 2000 at the age of 18. Read the article; I doubt Kenyan high schools are graduating 15 year olds.

Further, Kenya has a record of falsifying athlete's ages. When the athletes reach customs for their first international trip, they do not usually carry (or even own) their birth certificates, so the clerk will simply put their age down as something between 16-18.

Another example; in 2000, Sammy Kipketer was ostensibly 17. He ran the first mile of the Carlsbad 5,000 in 3:58 and finished shattering the WR with 13:00. He was a close second to Gebrselassie in London and third in Zurich with 12:59.

17 year olds simply do not have the lifetime base, or the experience, or the physical maturity to run these times. Kipketer is not even a particularly remarkable Kenyan, having never won any Major Championship medal, yet if he is capable of this, Kenyans should be breaking every record at age 21-23 when they are in their prime.

Well thanks very much, but all I'm really asking for are the specifics of the claim by ashjkf. I just want him to elaborate. I honestly want to know what his Kenyan friends said about Kipchoge's age. That's all.

While I can't add any solid confirmation about Kipchoge specifically, here's what I've observed while living, teaching, and coaching in Kenya:

1. Kenyan birth certificates, at least in rural areas around Eldoret, are not issued at (or even close to) the child's birth. Instead they are applied for whenever the parents or individual get around to it. In fact, they have a line on them indicating "date registered," and this is typically nothing close to the supposed birthdate. Most people don't bother registering their births until they are applying for their Kenyan ID Card and/or passport. The date on the certificate is essentially whatever the applicant tells the person at the district health office. Supposedly the applicant is supposed to bring the ID cards of both parents and someone to verify the birth dates, but I've known of plenty issued without these documents.

2. Age Falsification is very common in Kenya, but it has nothing to do with running. It is, instead, a result of the Kenyan government's imposition of a mandatory retirement age for public sector workers - teachers, cops, military, civil servants. I believe the current age is around 50, but plenty of people there want to keep working past this age, so they simply "adjust" things a bit to make this possible. I guess the Kenyan government has turned a blind eye to this because any attempt to crack down on it would force major turnover in the work force and would also generate tremendous backlash. I know, with total certainty, of one guy who ran on the Kenya Jr. team 7 years after finishing HS.

3. It is quite uncommon for a male in rural Kenya to graduate high school before turning 20. In the school where I taught we only graduate 1 male in 2 years under 20. Most were more like 20-22 or even older. The most extreme cases I knew of were a couple of guys in my freshman (Form I) English classes who were 22. Financial and social factors play into this. It is, however, almost impossible for someone to graduate before turning 18. The one area that I have seen pretty strict age enforcement is in primary school admissions. Schools almost never admit first graders younger than 6 or 7, and even a lot of kindergartens require that kids be a legitimate 6 to start school.

So, if Eliud Kipchoge really graduated HS in 2000, which is the date I've heard from some very reliable sources including his home village neighbors, then he is likely 24-25 at least. I'd heard this graduation date for him when he first popped up at the local races in Kenya, but I didn't want to post it on here because I'm not really in the business of "outting" guys and their graduation dates. Now that Time has gone to the trouble of printing it, I thought I'd pitch in my 2 cents about what the implications of the date are.

Interesting. I guess this means that all those international junior meets and records are pretty much meaningless, at least as far as distance races are concerned. Wonder why the IAAF even bothers with this sham.

In all fairness I should also point out that I knew at least one guy who made himself "older" in order to get in the armed forces. In the US kids are bending over backwards to get fake ID's - this guy had a real ID with a fake age.

Tommie John wrote:

Dude, the article says he is 19 in 2004 and graduated high school in 2000. Dude, if you do the math, he was 15 in 2000 when he graduated high school.

Dude, keep your inane comments to yourself you stupid moron.

Dude, learn to take a JOKE.

I think I have it. the Kenyan's count in a different base. For example, 25 in base 10 is just 21 in base 12. The Kenyan's can count - they just use a different base only no one has bothered to ask them exactly how they count. The same thing happened to Alan Webb. Some say his times over the 2002-2003 seasons were slow. Maybe not. How were they being counted?

If he graduated in the year 2000, that is interesting.

Normally, primary education (elementary) is 8 years.

Kids begin at the age of six hence graduating at 14 .

High school is four years hence graduating at 18 at the earliest or 17 at best.

Add the 4 years he has been out and you get 22 or thereabout.

Mzungu, where did you teach and for how long did you live in Kenya??

That exact same thing happens all over Africa and I have never and will never beleive that their ages are correct.

World Junior records and performnaces are a farce....

I have witnessed it first hand by a guy who turned out to be 6 years older than me and was ompeting against me, they tested him using age testing technology which is used in Youth football by FIFA -

Coupled with the drug scandals if you want a fair sport youre in the wrong game - maybe chess is a better option!

I was at a rural school in Uasin Gishu district, near a small centre called Flax. I taught at the school there in 2000 & 2001 and then lived with a nearby family and only coached in 2002.

I would agree with your timeline of Kenyan education being true for urban schools in Kenya, but in the rural areas students tend to be a bit older than that on average - particularly guys. The whole business of raising school fees usually means a gap of at least a year or two between primary and secondary school. Also, a lot of guys that I knew didn't start secondary until after their "initiation" - which all depended on when the family could get the money to put that together. Girls, for the most part, finish school in that area at 18-20, but the guys are older.

mzungu wrote:

I was at a rural school in Uasin Gishu district, near a small centre called Flax. I taught at the school there in 2000 & 2001 and then lived with a nearby family and only coached in 2002.

I would agree with your timeline of Kenyan education being true for urban schools in Kenya, but in the rural areas students tend to be a bit older than that on average - particularly guys. The whole business of raising school fees usually means a gap of at least a year or two between primary and secondary school. Also, a lot of guys that I knew didn't start secondary until after their "initiation" - which all depended on when the family could get the money to put that together. Girls, for the most part, finish school in that area at 18-20, but the guys are older.

I agree with your assessment.

Thanks for your input.

I am from laikipia district (about 80kms from Nakuru). It is in the Rift Valley. I am actually from Nyahururu where most of the elite athletes train.

ashjkf wrote:

I went to Kenya this summer, I saw Kipchoge training, and talked with fellow runners of his, he is 24-25, no way is he the 19 or 20 year old he claims to be, it doesn't bother me because he is fast either way, but he's in his mid 20's.

Everyone knows most of the E. Africans are older than what is claimed, but it's generally the federation making those claims rather than the athletes. The athletes are usually following orders. The lying about the age is probably to help load up on jr. medals and psyche out possible up and coming opponents.

mzungu wrote:

In all fairness I should also point out that I knew at least one guy who made himself "older" in order to get in the armed forces. In the US kids are bending over backwards to get fake ID's - this guy had a real ID with a fake age.

In the old days, the athletes in Kenya and Ethiopia would make themselves "older" to get into the armed forces in order to get the only good food and housing available. This is why Yifter was running when it was claimed he was 39 (he was still awesome, just several years younger than what was said), and Keino was actually a couple of years younger than what was stated. Now it's the opposite so that the teams can gobble up all the junior medals and records. The IAAF is aware of it, but looks the other way, just as they do with the drug use by the "poor" Africans.