Back to the Olympics Newsfeed

Rebecca Cheptegei, Olympic Runner From Uganda, Dies After Attack

Rebecca Cheptegei, a Ugandan long-distance runner who competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics before she was severely burned in an attack, died in Kenya on Thursday. She was 33.

She died at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in the city of Eldoret in an intensive care unit, said Dr. Owen Menach, who is on staff at the hospital. The cause was multiple organ failure, he said in a phone interview. The police had said that a man with whom she was in a relationship set her on fire with gasoline on Sunday.