Kenyan Olympic champ Faith Kipyegon won electricity for her village

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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Olympic women’s 1500-meter champion Faith Kipyegon is lighting up her village in more ways than one.

Every Olympian who wins a medal is rewarded by their home country in all sorts of ways. Matthew Centrowitz, who won the men’s 1500-meter run, will receive $25,000 from the USOC, as well as bonuses from Nike. Faith Kipyegon, who won the same event on the women’s side, will receive a much more significant bonus — electricity for her rural Kenyan village.

Kipyegon, the Kenyan national record holder, hails from the Ndabibit Village, a village so remote and tiny that it returns no search results in Google Maps. Kipyegon’s tiny village had been without electricity since it was founded in 1980. According to IndiaToday, Kipyegon’s gold has changed that.

The parents of Faith Kipyegon, 1500m Olympic Gold medalist will never miss a moment of glory thanks to Last mile pic.twitter.com/mMIoodRCSz

— CS Charles Keter (@ketercharles) August 26, 2016

Kipyegon’s father, Samuel Koech Kipyegon made an impassioned plea to his country’s leader after he was not able to watch his daughter race in Rio. “I urge President Uhuru Kenyatta to make sure our village is connected to electricity so that I can see my daughter Faith running and winning medals for Kenya,” he said.

It only took one day from Kipyegon’s call to action for Kenyan Power to arrive and begin constructing power lines in Ndabibit. The team was able to build and connect the lines in only nine days.

“We thank Faith for delivering us from the powers of darkness because as long as we live we shall remember her and the gold she won because today our village has been connected to power because of her sterling performance in the Olympic Games,” said a neighbor, Benard Lang’at.

In addition to power, Kipyegon’s father will also be gifted with a television by Samsung so that he can put that electricity to good use and watch his daughter compete on the international stage.

“I only thank God for giving me such a wonderful daughter who has transformed our village, and I pray to God to give her strength and good health so that she can win more medals for Kenya,” Mr. Kipyegon said.