Paris to name sports venue after murdered Ugandan Olympian, Cheptegei

The city of Paris wants to honour the late Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei by naming a sports venue after her.

The proposal was announced by city mayor Anne Hidalgo on Friday and will be discussed by elected city officials in October.

Cheptegei died on Thursday at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner. She was 33.

Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month ago and finished 44th.

“Paris joins its elected representatives in expressing its support for the family of the athlete, victim of a femicide a few weeks after she participates in the Olympic Games,” Paris city hall said in a statement.

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said this week that Cheptegei’s partner, Dickson Ndiema, bought a can of gasoline, poured it on her and set her ablaze during a disagreement last Sunday. Ndiema was also burned and was being treated at the same hospital.

Every 11 minutes on average, a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member somewhere in the world, according to figures from UN Women, the agency promoting gender equality, and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

“An emotional thought for Rebecca Cheptegei,” Hidalgo told a press conference on Friday, quoted by French media. “We saw her, her beauty, her strength, her freedom. Paris will not forget her, and we will dedicate a sports venue to her, so that her memory and her story will be present among us.”

Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.

About Cheptegei:

Rebecca Cheptegei (22 February 1991 – 5 September 2024) was a Ugandan cross country, long-distance and marathon runner, who was the national record holder in the latter discipline and a former world champion in mountain running.

She represented Uganda at several World Championships since 2010, including IAAF World Cross Country Championships, World Mountain and Trail Running Championships and World Athletics Championships.

She also competed in the women’s marathon at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She was killed in a case of alleged domestic violence attack over a land dispute with her former partner in Kenya in September 2024.

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