Rebecca Cheptegei: Paris pays short tribute to Ugandan Olympian during Paralympic Games
A picture of Rebecca Cheptegei appeared on a giant screen after the Paralympics marathon events on Sunday in a tribute to the Ugandan runner who died on Thursday, four days after she was doused in petrol and set on fire by her boyfriend in Kenya.
Spectators applauded as the face of Cheptegei, who took part in the Paris Olympics marathon, was shown on the Esplanade des Invalides.
Cheptegei, 33, died in the latest attack on a female athlete in the country. She suffered burns to more than 75 per cent of her body in Sunday’s attack, Kenyan and Ugandan media reported.
She is the third prominent sportswoman to be killed in Kenya since October 2021.
On Friday, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said the French capital would pay tribute to Cheptegei by naming a sports facility in her honour.
“An emotional thought for Rebecca Cheptegei,” Hidalgo told a press conference on Friday, quoted by French media. “We saw her, her beauty, her strength, her freedom. Paris will not forget her, and we will dedicate a sports venue to her so that her memory and her story will be present among us.”
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41 per cent of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.