Kip Keino: the Kenyan champion who built homes for orphans
He won Olympic gold in 1968 and 1972, then spent decades caring for children in Eldoret. The IOC gave him its first Olympic Laurel in 2016.
Eldoret — Kipchoge Keino helped start one of sport's great stories: Kenya's long line of middle and long-distance runners. He then gave much of the rest of his life to children who had no one to look after them.
A policeman on the track
Born on 17 January 1940 in Kipsamo, in Nandi District, he lost his parents as a child and was raised by an aunt. He joined the Kenya Police and played rugby before he took up athletics.
In 1965 he took more than six seconds off the 3,000m world record in his first try at the distance, and he also broke the 5,000m record. He won the 1,500m and 5,000m at the first All-Africa Games.
Gold in Mexico and Munich
At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City he won the 1,500m, beating the American world record holder Jim Ryun by 20 metres, the largest winning margin in the event's history. He took 5,000m silver as well. In Munich in 1972 he won the 3,000m steeplechase and took silver in the 1,500m.
The work that followed
With his wife, Phyllis, he established the Lewa Children's Home for orphans in Eldoret, the KipKeino Primary School in 1999 and the Kip Keino Secondary School in 2009. Sports Illustrated honoured him in 1987 as one of the "Athletes Who Care".
The stadium in Eldoret carries his name. He led Kenya's Olympic Committee until 2017, and at the Rio opening ceremony in 2016 he received the first Olympic Laurel.
Background: Wikipedia.
