New York City silver medallist, Sally Kipyego, becomes U.S. citizen
Twelve years after arriving in the U.S., star runner Sally Kipyego is granted official American citizenship.
After 12 years and eight days, one of Kenya’s star runners had officially become a citizen of the U.S.
Late Wednesday, last year’s New York City Marathon silver medallist, Sally Kipyego, posted a photo of herself on Instagram holding an American flag and her official U.S. citizenship certificate. With it, she included the words “Today I became a U.S. citizen! #Grateful.”
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Kipyego, who has shown talent racing in distances ranging from the 1,500m to the marathon, is currently based in Eugene where she is coached under Mark Rowland. Her most recent brag-worthy performance was her 2:28.01 marathon in New York at the biggest road race in the world. She was beat only by Mary Keitany who ran 2:24.26 for gold. Canada’s Lanni Marchant placed seventh in that race and gave a shout out afterwards to Kipyego with whom she has trained alongside temporarily.
That wasn’t Kipyego’s only knockout performance on New York streets. In 2014, she showed up to race the New York Half-Marathon. She ran a personal best of 1:08.31 to set the course record.
Though Kipyego landed on American soil 12 years ago, she has raced wearing the Kenyan uniform. One of her most notable performances was her silver medal run at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. There, she competed in the 10,000m running 30:26.37 to win a shiny piece of hardware for her home country. She also competed in the 5,000m that year placing fourth with a time of 15:05.79.
Prior to that, the runner has shown up to IAAF World Championship events. The most notable of those races was her silver medal run in the 10,000m in 2011. She did not make the Kenyan team for the 2016 Rio Games.
Her U.S. citizenship has been a sensitive topic for the runner in the past. In a 2012 interview with Athletics Illustrated, Kipyego called the subject of immigration a “complex matter” and declined to give further comment. She has gone into a little more depth when talking to the IAAF though. When discussing her wearing the Kenyan uniform in competition, she said:
“I’m running for Kenya now. Changing citizenship is very complex, very personal at times. It does not have to do with patriotism like many people think. If you got a better job outside Kenya for you and your family, like a lawyer for example getting a job in London, what would you do? Immigration has to be personal and different people choose it for different reasons.”
She is not the only star in her family either. She has two marathon brothers in the family. Christopher runs a 2:12.17 and Michael runs 2:06.48.
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