DOPING TITANS: What Olympic champion Jepchirchir’s EPO ban means for the sport

Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir, the reigning world champion and 2021 Olympic gold medalist in the women’s marathon, was provisionally suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) on Friday after testing positive for the banned performance-enhancing substance EPO.

Jepchirchir, 33, is one of the most decorated marathoners of the 21st century, with major marathon victories in Valencia, Boston, London, New York, and Sydney. She is also a three-time world half marathon champion.

Jepchirchir’s agent Gianni Demadonna told LetsRun.com that the positive test came from a sample collected on July 17, 2026, six weeks before Jepchirchir won the Sydney Marathon.

Jepchirchir is the latest in a string of high-profile Kenyan marathoners to have been suspended in recent years, following in the footsteps of Rita Jeptoo (3-time Boston, 2-time Chicago Marathon champ), Jemima Sumgong (2016 London/Olympic champion), and Ruth Chepngetich (3-time Chicago champion, current world record holder).

Overall, more than 130 Kenyans are currently suspended by the AIU, and more than 300 have been banned since the AIU’s creation in 2017.

WHAT WE KNOW

Jepchirchir, who never competed on the track, has been running professionally on the roads since 2013. She first made a name for herself by winning the 2016 World Half Marathon Championships in Cardiff, then broke the world record for that distance by running 65:06 at the Ras Al Khaimah Half in 2017.

In 2019, she moved up to the marathon and has been one of the best in the world in that event ever since, earning wins in Valencia (2020), the Olympics (2021), New York (2021), Boston (2022), London (2024, women’s-only world record), and the World Championships (2025).

She is the only athlete in history, male or female, to win New York, Boston, and the Olympics.

AT THE HOUSE

One thing worth noting about Jepchirchir is that she trained alone and raced sparingly – two things that sources within the sport have indicated to LetsRun.com are red flags. Since the start of 2021, Jepchirchir has never raced more than three times in one year. That includes only two races in 2023 and 2025, and only one race in 2026.

Demadonna said that on the date of sample collection, July 17, the doping control officers initially had trouble entering Jepchirchir’s house after the security guard would not let them in.

“After two hours, a person from AIU in Kenya called me and told me, if Peres will not open the door, we have to take an action. She will be banned two years.”

Demadonna said he was “really shocked” when he heard Jepchirchir had tested positive.

“She had a long career and never had problem with doping control,” Demadonna said. “I don’t know why she has done this. I am really shocked because she was one of my most trusted athletes. Because for many years she has always done doping control, out of competition, in competition…

“For me, after 13 years working with the lady, I thought I knew her. I don’t know what pushed her to do it.”

ANOTHER TITAN FALLS

One thing that the AIU has made clear since it was formed in 2017 is that it is unafraid to go after the biggest athletes in the sport. Jepchirchir is the 10th World Marathon Major winner to be suspended since 2017. Nine of those 10 runners are Kenyan.

Kenya, to its credit, has recognized that the country is in the midst of a doping crisis, with the government committing $5 million per year to the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya.

But while it is reassuring that cheats are being caught, it is also depressing to see just how deep the doping problem runs in Kenya. Kenya has produced two Olympic women’s marathon champions in history and both have now been popped for doping. So has the current world record holder.

Athletes in Kenya are being banned at every stage of their career, from those just arriving on the scene (Diana Kipyokei, banned for triamcinolone acetonide after winning the Boston Marathon in 2021) to those in their prime like Chepngetich and Jepchirchir to those at the very end of their career, like Olympic 1500m champ Asbel Kiprop or former marathon world record holder Wilson Kipsang.

It is hard to fully trust any top marathon performances coming from Kenya right now. That is unfortunate for the athletes who are truly clean, but that is the reality given the number of high-profile runners who have been caught in recent years.

– LetsRun.com