David Lekuta Rudisha is the 800 metres Rio 2016 Olympic gold medalist.
His brilliance clearly shows a steady evolution in Kenyan athletics over the past five decades.
It’s no doubt that Rudisha stands out among the world’s best track stars in the same breath with Jamaica’s multiple Olympic and world record holder, Usain Bolt.
He was the first Kenyan to win the prestigious IAAF World Athlete of the Year Award in 2010, and has won a record three consecutive Track and Field Athlete of the Year Awards to tie with Carl Lewis. But the sporting world knows very little about this two-lap race maestro.
Rudisha is among three Chief Inspectors of Traffic Police in Eldoret.
“I love my job and report to work like any other police officer. I am based in Eldoret and, one day, I will get you on the wrong side of the law while driving along our roads in Eldoret,” Rudisha said jokingly.
While Rudisha is competing, his colleagues in traffic police in Eldoret watch and celebrate with abandon in town with his fellow Chief Inspector, Harry Munene, the traffic police base commander in Eldoret.
“Mimi nakaa mbele ya TV bwana kuwatch my colleague. Huyu wetu analeta sifa tele kwetu na Kenya nzima. Naamini atazoa dhahabu kwa hii Olympics (I always watch my colleague Rudisha competing on TV. He has made the whole country proud and I believe he’ll bag the gold medal in Rio,” said Munene.
“Don’t be surprised to see me manning the roads,” Rudisha said.
Away from law enforcement, Rudisha herds cattle in his rural home in Kilgoris. You will meet him in a Maasai shuka, armed with chebunyo (the Maasai rungu), often chatting on Facebook and following what’s going on on Twitter.
Rudisha has the world 800m record (1:40.91); Olympic champion and world champion titles, as well as being a former Africa and world junior champion.
Rudisha was the first athlete to run under 1:41.00 in the event, and he holds the three fastest, six of the eight fastest, and half of the 20 fastest times ever run in this event.
His father, Daniel Rudisha, is a former athlete who won silver medal at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City in the 4 x 400m relay team, while his mother, Naomi Rudisha, is a former 4 x 400m hurdler.
Some of the athletes who ran with Rudisha’s dad include Munyoro Nyamau, Naftali Bon and Charles Asati. He also competed in the 400 metres at the Olympics, finishing a non-qualifying sixth in his heat.
Rudisha’s dad is a Maasai, while the mother is Nandi. At times, Rudisha brags, albeit good-naturedly, that: “I am a child of two strong athletics backgrounds. My dad is a Maasai and my mum is a Nandi. That’s why I can equally challenge athletes from North Rift region well,” he said in an interview in Eldoret in 2009 in the presence of his mother. Rudisha is married to Lizzy Naanyu, and has a daughter.
Born in Kilgoris in Trans-Mara, Rudisha attended Kimuron St Francis Kimuron Secondary School in Keiyo North, where he studied alongside former world cross-country silver medalist, Lucas Rotich. He missed a place at St Patrick’s High School Iten, where his coach Bro Colm O’ Connell initially wanted him to enrol.
Bro O’ Connell, a lay missionary who has been in Iten since 1976, has produced many world beating athletes from St Patrick’s High School that include former world 800m record holder Wilson Kipketer of Denmark.
Rudisha has suffered losses to Ferguson Rotich in Shanghai and Stockholm before winning in Hungary. Rotich was first defeated on the international stage by Rudisha in Shanghai, having beaten him at the Beijing world’s trials at Safaricom Stadium, Kasarani last year.
He beat Rudisha in the Shanghai and Stockholm Diamond League meetings. Rudisha finished fifth in Shanghai (1:46.24) and fourth in Stockholm (1:45.69), while Rotich won both Shanghai (1:45.68) and Stockholm (1:45.07).
