It is here that Ugandan running flourishes, though the region’s talent has taken time to develop. While Kenya enjoyed relative stability in the decades after independence, Uganda was at war for much of the 1970s and 1980s. Lawlessness prevailed in the Mount Elgon region until the turn of the century: Bandits from neighboring tribes would come in at night and conduct cattle raids, often killing locals in the process.
Modernization of the area is also slow. Until the 1990s, the ancestors of many current athletes, including the Cheptegei, Kiplimo and Chemutai, lived within the forests of the upper Elgon belt, part of a small Sabaot group that lived on milk, honey and meat from the antelope and buffalo they hunt. Here, the elevation is 9,000 feet, there are no roads or schools, and there is no pipeline to competitive athletics. But according to Moses Kiptala, an elder who grew up in this community, endurance is very important: The group’s method of hunting involves chasing animals for hours until they heat up.
Kiplimo, who comes from a family of runners and planned to compete in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Budapest before being sidelined by an injured hamstring, is a particularly prominent stock. Kiptala recalled that Kiplimo’s grandfather was such a prolific hunter that the community called him Simba, or Lion.
Much had changed by the time today’s stars were born: In 1983, the Ugandan government began resettling the group, known as Mosopisiek, down from the forest to make way for a national park. Most now are small farmers. The resettlement process, Kiptala said, was traumatic, but it also helped unlock running talent. Through school, children can access competitions, and in the early 2000s, athletes from the Elgon region began appearing in the World Championship and Olympic finals.
Uganda’s first champion during this period was a runner from the north of the country, Dorcus Inzikuru, who won the 3000-meter steeplechase at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. Elgon’s watershed moment came seven years later, when Kapchorwa native Stephen Kiprotich pulled off an upset victory in the 2012 London Olympic marathon — the country’s first Olympic gold since 1972. He doubled up with a marathon title the following year that year in Moscow.