Thousands of feet above the Great Rift Valley that runs through East Africa, the small city of Iten, Kenya, calls itself the Home of Champions. It has long produced and attracted world-class running talent, its high altitude and red dirt roads a training ground for thousands.
The town also has a far less laudatory reputation. It is a well-documented center of a doping crisis that shows little sign of being tamed.
Runners come here for access to competition, coaching talent and the benefit of training in thin air, all to try to earn riches from running. Many Kenyans who try to join the elite endure cramped and dirty living conditions, little food and separation from their families in service of their ambitions.
In a region where the average annual income is the equivalent of little more than $2,000 and the competition so intense, the potentially life-changing lure of banned substances, referred to locally as “the medicine,” is obvious. A few thousand dollars in prize money or participation in a single overseas race can be the difference between runners and their families eating three meals a day and scratching around for the next bite.
Officials acknowledge that Kenya has a doping problem, but many athletes who are seeking an edge also want a way out of poverty. https://t.co/oOC3T6Ir7y
— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) July 29, 2025