Some Kenyan runners see doping as a path to glory, and to basic sustenance

ITEN – Thousands of feet above the Great Rift Valley that runs through East Africa, the small city of Iten, Kenya, calls itself the “Home of Champions”. It has long produced and attracted world-class running talent, its high altitude and red dirt roads a training ground for thousands.

The town also has a far less laudatory reputation. It is a well-documented centre of a doping crisis that shows little sign of being tamed.

Runners come here for access to competition, coaching talent and the benefit of training in thin air, all to try to earn riches from running. Many Kenyans who try to join the elite endure cramped and dirty living conditions, little food and separation from their families in service of their ambitions.

In a region where the average annual income is the equivalent of little more than US$2,000 (S$2,590) and the competition so intense, the potentially life-changing lure of banned substances, referred to locally as “the medicine”, is obvious.

A few thousand dollars in prize money or participation in a single overseas race can be the difference between runners and their families eating three meals a day and scratching around for the next bite.

They calculate that doping is worth the risks not only of getting caught, but also of damaging their health and, in some cases, even dying.

In that environment, the doping industry has flourished, with pharmacies in the region’s healthcare hub city of Eldoret said to serve as a conduit for performance-enhancing substances. The crisis pulls together extreme poverty, money-making opportunity, corruption and a region overflowing with running talent that makes getting an edge harder than just about anywhere.

“This economic reality means the high-risk situation is always going to be impossible to completely eradicate,” said Brett Clothier, the head of global track and field’s unit responsible for anti-doping efforts.

Many runners and coaches suspect that their rivals dope and they point to the roster of athletes barred from international competitive racing. Kenya has the most names on the list.

Some of Kenya’s most prominent runners have been caught doping and barred from competition. The women’s marathon world-record holder, Ruth Chepngetich, who is from the Rift Valley, was suspended in July after testing positive for a prohibited substance.

International officials have made headway. Kenyans are now among the most-tested athletes anywhere, Clothier said, adding that as widespread as the doping is, it was far worse a few years ago.

Yet, global anti-doping bodies suspect that policing efforts may be touching only the edges of a cheating epidemic. Officials in Kenya responsible for tackling doping have been caught taking bribes.

The scale of the problem prompted track and field’s governing body to threaten to ban Kenya from global competition unless its government committed to spending US$25 million to fight doping, a staggering amount in the anti-doping world.

“We have to teach them a different way of seeing things, that using illegitimate means of doing well is not going to help them in the long run. It damages their health and they might not be successful,” said Barnabas Korir, an executive committee member of Kenya’s athletics federation who also sits on a multi-agency anti-doping body.

“It’s a matter of changing the whole attitude.”

To beat the competition and earn life-changing income, which could mean as little as US$5,000 or US$10,000 a year, doping is an attractive proposition.

Over the past decade, Alfred, an athlete who acknowledged using banned drugs, achieved success in modest races. The income, he said, allowed him to provide a home for his immediate family and his mother, who had been living in the mud-and-thatch house where he was raised.

Doping was the only route he saw to a better life, said Alfred, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition his last name not be used.

Getting access to banned substances is straightforward. Pharmacies line the streets of Eldoret, a city of about a half million and the region’s principal commercial hub, about a 30-minute drive from Iten.

Runners can procure just about anything they need to boost performance. For those who cannot pay, some pharmacists or doctors will strike deals for a percentage of future earnings.

The authorities’ crackdown also took aim at drug suppliers, while blanket testing is the latest tool that officials have devised to catch cheats in Iten.

Often, Kenyans and others taking drugs show little regard for the physical risks, such as dangerously elevated heart rates, kidney and liver disease, and even death.

In the fall of 2024, at the same Iten track, a 20-year-old man trying out for an American college scholarship collapsed and died after a 3,000m trial, news reports said.

He is one of many young Kenyan athletes to die while running. The causes of death have been hard for athletics officials to determine because they have been unable to get access to autopsy results.

“If someone drops dead like that, an athlete who is fit, a young one, there has to be a reason,” said Korir, the Kenyan official. “It can’t be someone just drops dead.” NYTIMES