Kip Keino

The first I recall ever hearing about Kenya was while watching the 1968 Olympics on our black and white television when I was a child. A Kenyan runner named Kip Keino beat the American miling great Jim Ryun in the 1500 meter race in the rarified air of Mexico City.



He won two medals in Mexico City and two more four years later in Munich and became the first famous African distance runner. When I started running in ninth grade, the first two books I read were the biographies of Kip Keino and of Jim Ryun.

Now when people think of Kenya, they think of their great distance running tradition.

I have a running friend whose cousin was just in Kenya working with Kip Keino. Here is an article he sent that tells more of this great athlete and person and what it means to be "world class".