With the world-record holder serving a ban and a former Olympic champion provisionally suspended, a series of high-profile doping cases is undermining confidence in elite marathon running, particularly among women.
As runners prepare for Sunday’s New York City Marathon, the sport is facing an uncomfortable reality: some of its biggest names have been caught doping, and the integrity of its records is increasingly under scrutiny.
The latest cases have hit women’s marathon running particularly hard. World-record holder Ruth Chepngetich is serving a three-year suspension, while last week it emerged that Peres Jepchirchir, a former Olympic champion and reigning world champion, had tested positive for EPO and been provisionally suspended.
The revelations have angered Benson Kipruto, last year’s New York Marathon winner and a two-time major marathon champion in Boston and Chicago. Like Jepchirchir and Chepngetich, he is Kenyan.
Speaking to Reuters days before the race, Kipruto described the scandal as deeply embarrassing. He warned that doping allegations involving prominent athletes could damage the reputation not only of Kenyan runners but of the sport worldwide, making spectators question whether elite performances can be trusted.
Jepchirchir, 33, has been one of the defining marathon runners of her generation. She won Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021 and followed it with victory in New York later that year, becoming the first woman to claim both titles in the same season.
Further major victories followed in Boston in 2022 and London in 2023 and 2024. Her second London win was particularly significant: she ran 2:16:16 in a women-only race, setting a world record for a marathon without male pacemakers. Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa subsequently improved that mark, bringing it down to 2:15:41.
A world record under scrutiny
The other women’s marathon world record, set in a race featuring pacemakers, stands at 2:09:56. Chepngetich ran that time in Chicago in 2024, breaking the previous record by almost two minutes and improving her personal best by five minutes.
The performance was met with considerable scepticism. A few months later, the Kenyan runner tested positive for hydrochlorothiazide, a substance that can be used as a masking agent. She admitted the violation and received a three-year ban, but her world record was allowed to stand.
Brett Clothier, head of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), recently described the outcome as unsatisfactory in an interview with The Guardian. He explained that anti-doping rules protect athletes’ rights and that a result cannot be retrospectively annulled without conclusive evidence that the athlete was cheating when it was achieved.
In Chepngetich’s case, that evidence was not established.
Records that refuse to disappear
Athletics has long been burdened by records whose legitimacy remains disputed. Many performances from the 1970s and 1980s, an era associated with widespread doping, still stand. They include Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 100m and 200m records from 1988 and the women’s discus record set that same year by East Germany’s Gabriele Reinsch.
Athletes have had to accept that such marks may remain beyond their reach, even when competing without performance-enhancing drugs. But the controversy surrounding Chepngetich’s record feels different: it is a relatively recent performance, achieved in an era when anti-doping controls are far more established.
The latest cases have added to the frustration. Albert Korir, who won the men’s New York Marathon in 2021 alongside Jepchirchir’s victory in the women’s race, was also found to have used EPO. He received a five-year suspension earlier this year.
All three athletes are Kenyan, drawing renewed attention to the country’s persistent doping problem. For many young runners, a successful career on the international circuit offers a route out of poverty, creating powerful incentives in an intensely competitive environment.
During a visit to Kenya this year, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) president Witold Banka called for a stronger commitment to clean sport, arguing that the country needed to demonstrate its credibility ahead of hosting the 2029 World Championships.
There have, however, been efforts to address the problem. Kenya significantly increased its anti-doping testing programme in 2022. More testing inevitably leads to more violations being detected, but officials say the figures should also be seen as evidence that controls are improving.
Phyllis Nduta Mwangi, a lawyer at the country’s anti-doping agency, told de Volkskrant earlier this year that the rise in positive cases largely reflected a much larger pool of athletes being tested, describing the development as a step in the right direction.
Nor is doping confined to Kenya. Last week, Ethiopian runner Ruti Aga, who finished third in New York in 2019, received a six-year ban after falsifying a medical certificate in an attempt to avoid suspension for using methylprednisolone, a corticosteroid.
Athletes taking the initiative
The fight against doping is increasingly extending beyond governing bodies and anti-doping authorities. Some athletes and their commercial partners are taking a more active role in demonstrating that performances are legitimate.
Kenyan runner Sabastian Sawe, who became the first athlete to complete a recognised marathon in under two hours, has described doping as a cancer within the sport. Concerned that suspicions could undermine his own achievements, he asked sponsor Adidas to provide additional funding for independent testing.
Before setting his record, Sawe secured €50,000 from the company to finance extra controls. The tests were carried out by the AIU without prior notice, following the organisation’s usual procedures.
Sawe’s manager has also introduced contracts requiring athletes to accept financial responsibility if they are caught doping.
A call for more testing
Kipruto believes more frequent testing is essential and says elite runners should be prepared to contribute financially.
He suggested that part of his own appearance fee for the New York Marathon could be redirected to the AIU to fund additional testing over a three-month period.
For him, the principle is straightforward: athletes who earn money and recognition from the sport should also help protect its credibility. With another major marathon approaching amid a series of damaging revelations, that credibility is becoming increasingly difficult to take for granted.
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