Eliud Kipchoge Will Return to London Marathon for the First Time Since 2020

The marathon GOAT, now 40, owns a record four London victories

The 2025 TCS London Marathon was already shaping up to be one of the best ever. A showdown between the three fastest women in history. A men’s race featuring the reigning champions from the Olympics, London, Berlin, New York, and Valencia. The debut of one of the greatest marathon prospects in history, Jacob Kiplimo.

On Friday, London announced the cherry on top: the return of Eliud Kipchoge.

From 2015 to 2019, Kipchoge won a record four London Marathons as he built his case as the greatest marathoner of all time. But Kipchoge’s seven-year undefeated streak in the marathon was ended at the COVID-delayed 2020 London Marathon, where he complained of an ear blockage and finished 8th, and Kipchoge has not returned to the British capital since.

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A different version of Kipchoge will return in April. That defeat in October 2020 showed Kipchoge was mortal, but only briefly; he responded by ripping off four straight marathon victories, including a second straight Olympic gold medal in Sapporo and a second world record in Berlin. Since that world record, however, Kipchoge has only won one of his last four marathons. His 2024 season was the worst of his career, finishing 10th in Tokyo in March — his lowest finish ever — before registering his first career marathon DNF at the Paris Olympics.

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In that race, Kipchoge fell off the lead pack during the course’s first big hill at 16 kilometers, and later complained of pain in his back and hip. He said he has recovered from that day, both mentally and physically, and is ready to race again.

“All in all, I’m well now,” Kipchoge said. “My body is good…It was not my day. I tripped at a challenge. I learned from that. Running is not straight all the time. Sometimes you can hit a bump, like driving a car…It was a big challenge. It was demoralizing but above all, it’s sport. You need to wake up, go again, push on every day.”

Can Kipchoge still be competitve against a London field that features a record six sub-2:04 men? He is only 15 months removed from running 2:02:42 to win Berlin, and unlike the Olympics or Boston (where he struggled and finished 6th in April 2023), London is a flat course where Kipchoge knows he can succeed. But he also turned 40 in November (some believe him to be even older than that). For the first time since his first London appearance in 2015, he will not be the favorite when he lines up at the start in Blackheath in April.

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“I still think that I can compete,” Kipchoge said. “I’m training in a good way. I can compete with the youngest people. It’s a huge inspiration to actually see the young people half my age running with me, training hard, racing in a hard way.”

As is typical when a legend starts showing signs of decline, Kipchoge was asked by reporters this week about retirement. Has he thought about it?

“A lot was running in my mind [after Paris], but this is my life,” Kipchoge said. “I have been in running for the last 22 years. If the curtains of retirement approach, you will still see me in sport. I will still do a lot of things with all of the marathons all over the world.”

Will he try to push on to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, when he would be 43 years old? For now, Kipchoge says, his motivation is to inspire as many people as possible. As long as he can do that, he would like to keep going.

“I will not be in LA when you convince me that the world has become a running world,” Kipchoge said. “If you have 4 billion people running every day, I will retire.”

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Kipchoge to 2025 London – Can he still compete with the best or is he washed?

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