Paris Plans To Honour Late Ugandan Olympian Cheptegei

By: Gyang Dakwo

The city of Paris wants to honor the late Ugandan Olympic runner Rebecca Cheptegei by naming a sports venue after her.

The proposal was announced by city mayor Anne Hidalgo on Friday and will be discussed by city officials in October.

Cheptegei died on Thursday at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in an attack by her partner. She was 33.

Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month ago and finished 44th.

“An emotional thought for Rebecca Cheptegei,” Hidalgo said. “She dazzled us here in Paris. We saw her — her beauty, her strength, her freedom — and it was in all likelihood her beauty, strength and freedom which were intolerable for the person who committed this murder,”

“Paris will not forget her and we will dedicate a sports venue to her, so that her memory and her story will remain among us, and help us carry even stronger the message of equality, which is a message carried by the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Hidalgo said.

Every 11 minutes on average, a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member somewhere in the world, according to figures from UN Women, the agency promoting gender equality, and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.