Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nationality | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Iten, Kenya | October 27, 1990||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Greensboro | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 174 cm (5 ft 9 in) [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 57 kg (126 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website | www | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | USA | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | 1500–10,000 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | United States Army | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Olympic finals |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
World finals |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal bests | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Paul Kipkemoi Chelimo (born October 27, 1990) is a Kenyan born American track and field athlete. He is the 2016 Olympic silver medalist and the 2020 Olympic bronze medalist in the 5000 meters. He qualified for the 2023 World Athletics Championships in the 5000m finishing in 15th place in a time of 13:30.88.
Born and brought up in Kenya, Chelimo initially went to the US in 2010 to run for Shorter College where he won the 3000 meters and was part of their winning distance medley relay team as Shorter won the 2011 NAIA National Indoor Championship. Later that year, Shorter won the NAIA Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championship as Chelimo won the 5000 meters and 10000 meters at the championships. He transferred to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, taking 2nd place in the 2012 NCAA Championships 5000 meters and repeated the place in 2013. [2]
Chelimo found his path to US citizenship by joining the United States Army through the Military Accessions Vital to National Interest (MAVNI) program as a water treatment specialist, then entering their World Class Athletic Program in 2014. [3]
He represented the United States in the 3000 meters at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships held in Portland, Oregon. He qualified to the World Championships by taking second place at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships on the same track a week earlier, setting a personal record of 7:39.00. [4]
Later in 2016, he finished third in the 5000 meters at the Olympic Trials. Running aggressively, Chelimo was the first to cover an early breakaway, which was eventually swallowed by another breakaway by previous trials winner Galen Rupp. Again, Chelimo led the last lap charge to run down Rupp, and after catching him, Chelimo held the lead onto the final straightaway. Chelimo was eventually run down by the sprint finish of 41-year-old Kenyan American Bernard Lagat, followed closely by Hassan Mead. But Chelimo was able to hold his position to the finish, beating Eric Jenkins to the line by 0.06 of a second and qualifying for the 2016 Summer Olympics. [1]
Chelimo ran a personal best 13:19.54 in the prelim of the 5000 metres at the 2016 Summer Olympics. During the final he stayed near the lead the entire race, withstanding every attack three Ethiopian teammates were trying to throw against eventual winner Mo Farah. When Farah launched his final kick to win the race, Chelimo was the last to follow Farah, looking, for a few moments at the head of the final stretch, like he would be the only one able to outsprint Farah to the line. Farah pulled away and Chelimo followed him across the finish line. On the scoreboard, he was initially announced as the silver medal winner. Then his name was removed from the results, along with Canadian Mohammed Ahmed and Ethiopian Muktar Edris. Chelimo had exchanged elbows with both of them during the final turn. Video showed Chelimo stepping inside of the track. Hagos Gebrhiwet was elevated to second place, American Bernard Lagat was elevated to third. The United States appealed and the medal was reinstated, with Edris, the initiator of the contact remaining disqualified. [5] He set a new personal best of 13:03.90 in the race. Chelimo's medal was the first for the US in the event since Bob Schul and Bill Dellinger in the 1964 Summer Olympics, held in Tokyo. [6]
Now an American star, he won the National Championships by seven seconds in record time. At the World Championships, it was a set of familiar faces on the last lap. This time though, Edris and his teammate Yomif Kejelcha got the jump on Farah and Chelimo going in to the final lap and Chelimo was running virtually even with Farah. In their pursuit of eventual winner Edris, both had to weave around Kejelcha then sprint for the line. In his last championship track race, Farah again beat Chelimo across the line, but this time it was much closer, barely a half meter separating the two, Chelimo getting bronze.
Chelimo participated in the 3000m of the 2018 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He won the race with a time of 7:57.88, thereby qualifying for the 2018 World Championships. [7] In the heats of the World Indoor Championships, he was one of many victims of a spate of disqualifications at that meet. After appeal, he did not get to run in the final. [8] In June, Chelimo won his second outdoor U.S. title in the 5000m at the 2018 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, [9] and, later that summer, won the London Diamond League also at the 5000m distance. [10]
Chelimo won his third U.S. outdoor title in the 5000m in a dramatic three-man sprint finish where he controversially drifted to lane four to prevent his competitors from overtaking him. [11] In another notable finish, Chelimo narrowly out-leaned Nicholas Kimeli for the bronze medal in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic 5000m. Chelimo dedicated the performance to his brother, who suddenly passed away earlier in the year. [12]
After his success in 2021 and relatively poor season in 2022, where he finished only 11th in the U.S. Championships 5000m, Chelimo once again qualified for the World Championships with his second place finish in the U.S. Championships. He also competed in the 10,000m, in which, he placed fifth. At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Chelimo placed 15th in the 5000m.
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Representing United States | |||||
2016 | U.S. Olympic Trials | Eugene, Oregon | 3rd | 5000 m | 13:35.92 |
Olympic Games | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 2nd | 5000 m | 13:03.90 | |
2017 | World Championships | London, United Kingdom | 3rd | 5000 m | 13:33.30 |
2019 | World Championships | Doha, Qatar | 7th | 5000 m | 13:04.60 |
2021 | U.S. Olympic Trials | Eugene, Oregon | 1st | 5000 m | 13:26.82 |
Olympic Games | Tokyo, Japan | 3rd | 5000 m | 12:59.05 | |
2023 | World Championships | Budapest, Hungary | 15th | 5000 m | 13:30.88 |
Bernard Kipchirchir Lagat is a Kenyan-American middle and long-distance runner.
Galen Rupp is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters in London and the bronze medal in the men's marathon in Rio de Janeiro. Rupp competed for the University of Oregon and trained under Alberto Salazar as a member of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the 2017 Chicago Marathon, becoming the first American to do so since Khalid Khannouchi in 2002. Rupp won the marathon at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials in Atlanta with a time of 2:09:20, and qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, where he finished eighth.
Matthew "Teg" Tegenkamp is a retired professional runner from Lee's Summit, Missouri who specialized in various long-distance events. Tegenkamp represented the United States at two Summer Olympics, in 2008 and 2012. He trained with other members of the KIMbia Athletics group and was sponsored by Nike during his professional career. Tegenkamp set an American record in the outdoor two mile[PRs] and also achieved other performances that were near record breaking during his career.
Hassan Mead is a Somali-American long-distance runner. He was a cross country and track athlete for the University of Minnesota. An eight-time All-American in his Minnesota career, four in cross country and five in track.
Shannon Solares-Rowbury is an American middle-distance runner from San Francisco, California. After competing collegiately for Duke University, she turned professional in 2007. Rowbury has represented the United States at the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Summer Olympics. She also represented the United States at the World Championships in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, winning the bronze medal in the 1500 meters in 2009. In 2015, Rowbury helped set the world record with the U.S. team for the distance medley relay event, and set a then-American record for 1500 meters on July 17, 2015, breaking Mary Slaney's 32 year-old mark with a time of 3:56.29.
Lopez Lomong is a South Sudanese-born American track and field athlete. Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, came to the United States at the age of 16 and became a U.S. citizen in 2007.
Chris Derrick is an American distance runner who won 3 consecutive US Cross Country Championships in 2013–15. He attended Stanford University, where he earned 14 All-American honors and holds an American junior record in the 5000 meters.
Andrew Bumbalough is a runner who specialized in various middle and long distances in track. He represented the United States at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and at the 2014 IAAF Continental Cup. After graduating from Georgetown University, Bumbalough went to train in Oregon with Coach Schumacher and fellow athletes Tim Nelson, Matt Tegenkamp, Evan Jager and Chris Solinsky. In 2011, Bumbalough finished fourth in the 5000m at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships behind Bernard Lagat, Galen Rupp and teammate Chris Solinsky.
Kim Conley is an American track and field athlete, who competes in middle and long distance track events. She finished in third place at the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in the 5,000 meters, where she finished twelfth in her heat.
Benjamin True is an American track and field and cross-country athlete, who competed for Dartmouth College and currently trains in Hanover, New Hampshire, while competing for Saucony and In the Arena. True was the top American at both the 2011 and 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, as well as the 2011 USATF Road Running Circuit Champion, winning the 5 km and 10 km Road Championships along the way.
Abbey Cooper is an American middle- and long-distance runner. Cooper is the most decorated Ivy League athlete in track and field and cross country running. She is the first Dartmouth female distance runner to win an NCAA title. She won a total of seven NCAA titles in her career. In 2014, she became a professional runner for New Balance.
The men's 5000 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place between 16 and 20 August at the Olympic Stadium.
Ryan Hill is an American long-distance runner. Hill was a silver medalist in the 3000 metres at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He represented the United States at the 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – Junior men's race 52nd place, 2013 World Championships in Athletics and the 2015 World Championships in Athletics, where he ran the 5000 meters at both finishing 7th and 5th, respectively.
Grant Fisher is a Canadian-born American professional middle- and long-distance runner. He holds the American national records for the 5,000 (12:46.96) and 10,000 meters (26:33.84), both set in a 2022 breakthrough season outdoors, and the 3,000 meters (7:25.47) after a post-injury return late in the 2023 outdoor season. He placed fifth in the 10,000 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and fourth at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Fisher holds North American records in the 3000 meters, 5000 m and 10,000 m.
Yomif Kejelcha Atomsa is an Ethiopian distance runner. He won the silver medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2019 World Athletics Championships and gold medals for the 3000 metres at the 2016 and 2018 World Indoor Championships. Kejelcha is the world indoor record holder for the mile with a time of 3:47.01, set on 3 March 2019 in Boston.
Eric Jenkins is a retired long-distance runner. In college, he ran for Northeastern University, before transferring to the University of Oregon after his junior year. At the University of Oregon, Jenkins was a two-time NCAA Champion, with victories in the 3000 metres and 5000 metres at the 2015 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships. He began competing professionally for Nike in 2015 as part of the Nike Oregon Project. Jenkins retired from competition in 2023.
Shadrack Kipchirchir is a Kenyan-born American distance track and field Olympian specializing in the 10,000 m. Following in his brothers footsteps, Kipchirchir enlisted in the U.S. Army in October 2014 and joined the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program after his enlistment.
Emily Sisson is an American long-distance runner. She set the North American record in the marathon on 9 October 2022, when she ran 2:18:29 to finish second at the Chicago Marathon. Sisson also held the American record in the half marathon from May 2022 until July 2023. She represented the United States in the 10000 metres at the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships, finishing 9th and 10th. In June 2021, she won the 10000m at the 2020 US Olympic Trials and placed 10th in the 10000m final at the 2020 Summer Olympics. In 2024, she placed second in the marathon at the US Olympic Trials, qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Birhanu Balew is an Ethiopian-born long-distance runner representing Bahrain. He reached the final of the 5000 m event at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The men's 5000 metres at the 2017 World Championships in Athletics was held at the London Olympic Stadium on 9−12 August. This race was announced as the last track race of Mo Farah's career as he intends to focus on marathon running and road racing. Farah had been in every final since 2007, winning three straight since 2011.