Kenya's Faith Kipyegon disqualified for shove in women's 5000m final, silver medal later reinstated

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon won silver at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Monday, finishing second for her country in the women’s 5000m final.

However, Kipyegon would be the silver medal winner for only moments, as she was disqualified for an apparant shove to Gudaf Tsegay from Ethiopia. The two appeared to trade elbows around the 800m mark of the race as Kipyegon attempted to move ahead of the Ethiopian runner.

She was later reinstated and will claim her silver medal after an appeal was filed by the Kenyan Federation and accepted by the Olympic Committee.

Here’s what went down:

Here is the shove in question involving Faith Kipyegon and Gudaf Tsegay… pic.twitter.com/6C1qGijDh6

— Chris Chavez (@ChrisChavez) August 5, 2024

The contact appeared to take Tsegay off-balance, but the race continued like normal. The official ruling for the infraction was obstruction. Kipyegon was notified of the disqualification mid-interview: “I have no idea what happened,” she said.

Kipyegon’s Kenyan teammate Beatrice Chebe would go on to win gold at the event with a time of  14:28.56 while Kipyegon finished in second. Tsegay ultimately finished in eighth.

Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who would have claimed Kipyegon’s silver medal, earned bronze. Italy’s Nadia Battocletti finished fourth, almost making the podium.

Having a mix-up like this down the stretch in an Olympic final was not expected, especially for two runners of the caliber of Kipyegon and Tsegay. Kipyegon is the regining world champion in the event while Tsegay holds the world record for it.

Kipyegon was eventually awarded her medal back, and helps maintain Kenya’s dominance over the event on Monday, occupying two-thirds of the podium.

Julien Alfred wins gold in Women’s 100M Final at Paris 2024 Olympics

Julien Alfred won gold at the Women’s 100M final at the Paris 2024 Olympics on Saturday, finishing with a blazing 10.72-second performance. It’s the first Olympic Gold Medal in Saint Lucia history

Sha’Carri Richardson finished with a silver medal finish, while Melissa Jefferson earned bronze during the contest. Richardson ran a 10.87 while Jefferson finished in 10.92 seconds.

Notably, Jamiaca’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price withdrew from her semifinal heat after posting the second-best time in the first round of races on Friday. She was looking (and expected) to medal in the event for a fifth-straight Olympics — something that had never been done before. Instead, she watched on as the rest of the field took to the track.

The final race was just as competitive as some of the semifinal rounds. Alfred and Richardson challenged each other in their respective semifinal heat with Alfred getting the better of the former LSU star by five hundredths of a second. She would do the same to claim Olympic gold.