Veteran athlete Eliud Kipchoge wants to make history by becoming the only marathoner to win three consecutive Olympic marathon medals.
In his interview with CNN on Friday, he opened up on his aspirations for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the only race that currently stands between his dreams.
However, Kipchoge will first race in the New York Marathon on November 5, one of the few competitions he has never participated in, with two aims; first, to win the race and to use it to prepare for next year's Olympics.
"I want to make history by being the first human being to win gold in a marathon (Olympic) three times back to back," Eliud Kipchoge divulged in an interview with CNN’s International Correspondent, Larry Madowo.
Kipchoge has so far won the 2020 Tokyo and 2016 Rio Olympics, setting the stage for him to join the rank of sprinter Usain Bolt, who won three gold medals back to back in the competition.
Jamaican Bolt, regarded as one of the best sprinters of his generation, won the 2008, 2012, and 2016 gold titles in the 100m and 200m Olympic games and is the only athlete in human history to set this record.
However, Kipchoge's return to America will be haunted by his disappointing performance at the Boston Marathon in April this year, where he finished sixth.
Nonetheless, he returned to winning ways in the Berlin Marathon for the fifth time, clocking 2:02:42. Though he fell short of breaking his own world record, he surpassed Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie for the most victories in Berlin, one of his favourite cities.
The 38-year-old athlete confirmed that he wasn't considering retiring yet and would ensure he shines in the New York Marathon and the 2024 Paris Olympics in France.
Not even age and pain would derail him from his focus. The athlete drew inspiration from his favourite sports figures who continue to excel despite passing the expected retirement ages.
“Ronaldo (Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo) is still playing football, and Hamilton (F1's Lewis Hamilton) is still driving a car at 350 km/hr at that age with that sharpness. Why not me?” Kipchoge wondered.
"I always say when you feel pain, that is where success is. You have to push and press on. Pain is a positive thing," he added.
The Kenyan is the first human in history to run a sub-two-hour 42KM marathon in Vienna, Austria, under the Enois challenge, breaking the two-hour barrier in the 2019 unofficial competition.
“That is what is on my mind to make history by being the first human being to win gold in a marathon (Olympics) three times,” Kipchoge borrowed inspiration from the Vienna experiment, adding that it was possible to run under two hours in an official race.
