Asbel Kiprop had his entire country behind him! The Kenyan won an Olympic gold and three World Championship titles in the 1,500m. But his career later took a turn when a doping case led to a four-year ban. Still, Kiprop did not let his experience go to waste. He joined the Kenya National Police Service and is now a Chief Inspector. But even after this career pivot, he found himself in a frightening situation after allegedly being drugged and robbed in his own country.

The incident reportedly happened on September 4 in Kapseret, Uasin Gishu County, near Eldoret. Kiprop had gone to an entertainment venue to watch football and was initially drinking alone when he noticed a woman sitting by herself nearby. According to Kiprop, the woman was wearing a yellow sweatshirt and green trousers, and the two spent several hours drinking together.

But then at around 4:12 a.m. on September 5, Kiprop said he and the woman left the venue and went to a nearby guest house. According to his account, it was after they arrived that he suddenly became extremely weak and was unable to walk before losing consciousness. Kiprop said he eventually regained his senses at around 3 p.m. that afternoon and discovered that he was alone in the room.

The woman was gone, and he then realized that money was missing. He reported losing KSh 8,000 in cash, while another KSh 35,000 was reportedly transferred from his mobile-money account, bringing his total reported loss to KSh 43,000.

The former athlete was also reportedly weak and vomiting after waking up. He went to Elgon View Hospital, where he received treatment before being discharged. He then made his way to Langas Police Station and reported the incident to authorities. Kiprop believes that his drink may have been spiked with a substance that caused him to lose consciousness. “I have never been drugged by any lady in my drinking life. Whenever I want to go for a short call, I always carry my glass of drink with me,” Kiprop said.

He later addressed the incident on Facebook: “Beauty of our night clubs are unmatched. I have travelled around the globe, Eldoret is a vibe, as I may say, in about two decades of my experience. But last Friday I experienced what I only hear, as per se, sleeping spike drug. Worse experience to never experience…” However, police have not publicly confirmed what substance was allegedly used.

For now, police are searching for the woman who was with Kiprop that night. The incident has put the former champion back in the spotlight, but long before this episode, Kiprop had already lived through the highest and lowest moments of a remarkable athletics career.

A golden rise that made Kiprop one of Kenya’s biggest track stars

Kiprop first gave Kenya a reason to believe in him as a teenager. In 2007, he won the World Junior Cross Country title in Mombasa before adding the 1,500m gold at the All-Africa Games in Algiers later that year. He also finished fourth in the 1,500m at the World Championships in Osaka.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kiprop was only 19 when he finished second in the 1,500m final behind Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzi. At first, silver appeared to be his result, but that changed after Ramzi was disqualified for a doping violation. Kiprop was awarded the Olympic gold medal. But the biggest chapter of his career was still to come.

Kiprop returned to the World Championships in 2011 with a chance to make history, and he did exactly that in Daegu. He won the 1,500m title to become the first Kenyan man to claim World Championship gold in the event. Two years later in Moscow, he defended his World Championship title. Kiprop won the 1,500m in 3:36.28, becoming a two-time world champion. Then, Beijing 2015 gave him the chance to do something even bigger.

At the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, he won the 1,500m for the third consecutive time. That put him alongside Noureddine Morceli and Hicham El Guerrouj as only the third man at the time to win the event three times. He also competed at the 2017 World Championships in London. But by this time, a problem was looming that was going to change the course of his career.

Kiprop tested positive for EPO in an out-of-competition sample in November 2017. He strongly denied intentionally doping and claimed that his sample may have been tampered with. He still got caught up in the anti-doping scandal, however, and was punished with a four-year ban in 2019. The suspension ended his competitive career in a rather painful way.