1. Tegla Chepkite Loroupe was born on 9 May 1973 and is a former Kenyan long-distance track and road runner.
32 Facts About Tegla Loroupe
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Tegla Loroupe is a global spokeswoman for peace, women's rights and education.
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Tegla Loroupe was the first African woman to hold the marathon World Record, which she held from 19 April 1998 until 30 September 2001.
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Tegla Loroupe was the first woman from Africa to win the New York City Marathon, which she has won twice.
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Tegla Loroupe has won marathons in London, Rotterdam, Hong Kong, Berlin and Rome.
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Tegla Loroupe was born in Kapsait village in the Lelan division of West Pokot District.
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Tegla Loroupe was told by her father that she was useless and her career might be babysitting.
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Tegla Loroupe spent her childhood working fields, tending cattle and looking after younger brothers and sisters.
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At the age of six, Tegla Loroupe started school at Kapsait Elementary school; she had to run ten kilometers to and from school every morning.
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Tegla Loroupe decided to pursue a career as a runner.
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Tegla Loroupe began to train to compete internationally the following year, earning her first pair of running shoes in 1989, which she wore only for particularly rough races.
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Tegla Loroupe was nominated for the junior race of the 1989 IAAF World Cross Country Championships finishing 28th.
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Tegla Loroupe competed again at the 1990 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, finishing 16th in the junior race.
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In 1994 and 1998, Tegla Loroupe won the Goodwill Games over 10,000 metres, barefoot.
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In 1994, Tegla Loroupe ran her first major marathon in New York.
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Tegla Loroupe won the New York City Marathon again in 1995 and finished 3rd in 1998.
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Tegla Loroupe won Rotterdam Marathon three times between 1997 and 1999.
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Tegla Loroupe won Berlin Marathon in 1999 and finished second in 2001.
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Tegla Loroupe finished second at the 1999 Osaka International Ladies Marathon.
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Tegla Loroupe won the Zevenheuvelenloop 15K race in the Netherland three times.
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Tegla Loroupe is a seven-time Egmond Half Marathon winner.
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Tegla Loroupe has won the Tilburg road race, a five times, a record number.
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Tegla Loroupe won the Paris Half Marathon in 1994 and 1998, City-Pier-City Loop half marathon in the Hague in 1998, and the Parelloop 10K in race in the Netherlands in 1999.
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Tegla Loroupe won Lausanne Marathon in 2002, Cologne Marathon in 2003 and Leipzig Marathon in 2004.
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Tegla Loroupe competed at the 2005 World Championships marathon race in Helsinki, Finland, but finished only 40th.
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Tegla Loroupe is an International Sports Ambassador for the IAAF, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and for UNICEF.
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Tegla Loroupe has established a school and orphanage for children from the region in Kapenguria, a high-mountain town in north-west Kenya.
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Tegla Loroupe won the "Community Hero" category at the 2007 Kenyan Sports Personality of the Year awards.
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Tegla Loroupe is a member of the 'Champions for Peace' club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organisation.
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In 2015 Tegla Loroupe became an Ambassador for the Homeless World Cup.
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At those games Tegla Loroupe was inducted into the Olympians for life project for her work in promoting peace.
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In October 2016 Tegla Loroupe was awarded United Nations Person of the Year.