Beatrice Chebet is enjoying a great season after adding two Olympics gold medals to her cabinet and those wins have greatly boosted her earnings in the last five months.
Beatrice Chebet is having a season to remember after adding two Olympics gold medals to her glittering collection.
Chebet claimed gold in both 5,000m and 10,000m at the Paris Olympics, this coming after she had retained her World Cross-Country title as well as breaking the world record in 10,000m at the Prefontaine Classic, the Eugene Diamond League, in May.
Those achievements have also come with fat paychecks for the 24-year-old who has made nearly Ksh32 million from her track winnings this year with the season still yet to end.
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Chebet started by bagging a second straight World Cross-Country title in Belgrade, Serbia in March and with her win, she earned $30,000 (Ksh3,870,000) being the prize money reserved for the champions.
She would start her Diamond League season in Doha, Qatar in May when she won the 5,000m before following it up with another win in Eugene, at the Prefontaine Classic, this time in the 10,000m.
The win in Eugene came in spectacular fashion as Chebet broke the world record. She lowered Letesenbet Gidey's 10,000m world record of 29:01.03, running a time of 28:54.14 to become the first woman to break the 29-minute barrier.
The race was originally billed as a world record attempt by Gudaf Tsegay and Chebet attached herself to the Ethiopian throughout the 25-lap race, and as her rival faded from world record pace nearing the end, the Kenyan surged with three laps to go to catch up with the world record wavelights before breaking it.
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Winning a Diamond League race comes with a prize of $10,000 (Ksh1,290,000) and with her two wins in May, she made $20,000 (Ksh2,580,000). Then there is the $50,000 (Ksh6,450,000) bonus for breaking a world record at a Diamond League race. That took her total purse from the Diamond League races to $70,000 (Ksh9,030,000).
At the Olympics, Chebet will be thankful that she was featuring in track and field as only athletics and boxing was rewarding its medallists with prize money at the Paris 2024 Games.
World Athletics announced early in the year that each gold Olympic gold medallist will receive $50,000 (Ksh6,450,000), meaning it is double delight for Chebet who will pocket $100,000 (Ksh12.9 million) from the prize pool for her two titles.
It does not end there for Chebet as the government of Kenya, through the Ministry of Sports, also made a promise to reward each gold medallist Ksh3 million with silver and bronze attracting respective prizes of Ksh2 million and Ksh1 million. It means Chebet will get a cheque of Ksh6 million, being the only double gold medallist from Team Kenya.
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It takes Chebet’s total to Ksh31.8 million from the last five months, a good reward for her hard work, which will serve as further motivation to many talented young athletes in Kenya.
Chebet still has a chance to earn more as the season is not over with Diamond League races in Lausanne, Silesia, Rome and Zurich yet to be ran before the season finale in Brussels.