A three-time Olympian and four-time World Champion, Lornah Kiplagat had blazing speed from 5K to the marathon. Born in Kenya, she became a Dutch citizen in 2003 and holds the Dutch national record in the marathon (2:23:43).

Kiplagat set her marathon personal best of 2:22:22 at the 2003 Osaka Marathon, when she still held Kenyan citizenship. She has held world-best times at 5K, 15K, 10 miles, 20K, and the half marathon. Kiplagat won the NYRR New York Mini 10K four times, a feat exceeded only by Grete Waitz and Tegla Loroupe, with five wins each. She won the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championship and the 2008 IAAF World Half Marathon Championship.

Kiplagat is the founder of the High Altitude Training Center in Iten, Kenya, a training facility for athletes of all abilities, and of the Lornah Kiplagat Foundation, which supports education for girls in Kenya with the inclusion of HIV/AIDS education, and provides op­portunities for girls and young women to continue their studies in Europe and the United States. “It is my hope that these girls move on to get good jobs and in so doing can give something back to their community,” she wrote on the foundation website. She’s also an ambassador of the Ministry of Development in the Netherlands.