Major power shift in athletics: African runners are disenchanted

In middle- and long-distance athletics, a tectonic shift is taking place, away from Africa and toward Europe. This is leading to earthquakes at major championships: athletes with European roots are celebrating, while the East Africans, once hailed as miracle runners, are left behind.

This trend has been evident for several years, and one of the leading figures is Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen , who has won at least one gold medal at every global championship since 2021 and set several world records. He was eliminated early in the 1500m in Tokyo; he hadn't competed in a single race during the summer due to a persistent injury.

Nevertheless, the record of athletes with European roots is impressive after six of the ten events in the middle and long distances. The 10,000 m was won by Frenchman Jimmy Gressier, with another European, Swedish Andreas Almgren, taking third place. New Zealander George Beamish crossed the finish line first in the 3,000 m steeplechase, and although Isaac Nader, a Portuguese of Moroccan descent, won the 1,500 m, nine of the 15 finalists have European ancestors in their family tree.

To illustrate what has happened, it is enough to look back at history: from 1987 to 2019, the only world champions in the 1500 m were of African descent, and their dominance at the Olympic Games lasted from 1996 to 2012. In the 10,000 m, this dominance lasted at the global level from 1987 to 2024, and in the steeplechase, it was unbroken from 1991 to 2024.

The shift isn't as pronounced in the women's race yet, but in Tokyo, there has been a medal for athletes of European ancestry in each of the three races held so far, and the overwhelming favorite in the 800m is a British woman, Keely Hodgkinson. She won the Olympic gold medal last year and her pacey runs are irresistible.

There are various reasons for these shifts. Some of them lie in Africa. In Kenya, in particular, there has been a consistent crackdown on dopers for several years. The fact that Olympic and world champions, as well as winners of major marathons, are being caught proves that East Africans are not simply dominating due to a genetic advantage.

On the other hand, the belief in natural superiority is so strong that federation officials, in particular, still act with incredible ignorance. For the 10,000m race, athletes were flown to Tokyo just two days before the final, without any acclimatization and without even a thought for jet lag. A Swiss coach met a Kenyan athlete at the training facility who didn't even know his race would take place the following day.

For years, the Kenyans could afford such mistakes; they were only outsmarted by their Ethiopian neighbors and rivals, who long approached major events with a somewhat more professional approach. Today, the general rule for East Africans is that success is achieved by those who can rely on professional management even at the championships, such as Faith Kipyegon, the great dominator of the 1500m.

The fact that Europeans, Americans, and Oceanians are also winning major titles today is not solely due to the weakness of Africans. Around the turn of the millennium, Western nations began to use science and methodology to combat the dominance of the running nations. A pioneer in this field was the American Alberto Salazar, who launched the Oregon Project in 2001 with millions of dollars from Nike. The goal was to create the first American Olympic marathon champion since Frank Shorter in 1972.

Salazar relied on science and cutting-edge technology; he was the first coach to use reduced-gravity treadmills and those that allowed running in water. His most successful athlete, however, had African roots: the Briton Mo Farah , who was originally from Somalia. He was a four-time Olympic champion and a six-time world champion in the 5,000 and 10,000 m.

The American coaching guru, however, cut or overstepped the boundaries of legality , experimenting with testosterone and having a sleazy doctor issue certificates for his athletes to take thyroid hormones, even though there was no medical reason for doing so. In addition, Salazar was accused by female athletes of using a rude, aggressive manner and being overly fixated on their body weight. He was banned for life from all sporting activities in 2021.

Salazar's principle that the Africans could be beaten, however, lived on. One who consistently implemented it was the Norwegian Gjert Ingebrigtsen, a self-made coach who molded his children into runners. He emphasized long stays at altitude and days with two interval training sessions at the lactate threshold. Three of his sons became European champions over 1500 m, the youngest of them being Jakob, the dominant runner of recent years.

But Gjert Ingebrigtsen's story also ended in scandal. In 2022, his sons parted ways with him as coach, and a year later, they accused their father of years of psychological and physical abuse in an open letter. A trial took place that year, but the defendant was largely acquitted.

He now trains other athletes, but the Norwegian Federation doesn't allow him to participate in major events. Shortly before the World Championships, he announced that he had filed an application to trademark the term "Ingebrigtsen Method."

Whether he actually invented a method that could be patented is questionable. What is certain is that long stays at altitude and so-called double-threshold training are now standard. There are countless groups and small groups around the world attempting to reach the top through scientific meticulousness and endurance.

Some of these are self-initiatives, but large sports management agencies or shoe manufacturers often also set up and finance such camps. One example is the Swiss company On with its Athletics Club . There are now three branches: one in the Engadine, one in the USA, and one in Oceania. Since this summer, the company has also been supporting an international group of 800-meter runners founded by former Swiss national coach Louis Heyer. A base in Kenya is also planned.

All of this is leading to increasingly competitive races. If Africans want to keep up, they too will have to professionalize their training, nutrition, recovery, and long-term planning. Whether they will ever again dominate as they did a decade ago is questionable. But the public is pleased that the competitions have become more diverse and exciting.