French capital wants to name sports venue after murdered Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei: “Paris will not forget her”

The city of Paris wants to honor a Ugandan Olympic runner who was killed when her partner attacked and set her on fire.

Rebecca Cheptegei died Thursday at a Kenyan hospital where she was being treated after 80% of her body was burned in the attack. She was 33.

Cheptegei’s death was less than a month after she competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics and finished 44th.

On Friday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo proposed the city name a sports venue after her. The proposal will be discussed by elected city officials in October.

“Paris joins its elected representatives in expressing its support for the family of the athlete, victim of a femicide a few weeks after her participation in the Olympic Games,” Paris city hall said in a statement.

Trans Nzoia County Police Commander Jeremiah ole Kosiom said this week that Cheptegei’s partner, Dickson Ndiema, bought a can of gasoline, poured it on her and set her ablaze during a disagreement last Sunday. Ndiema was also burned and was being treated at the same hospital.

“May her gentle soul rest in peace and we strongly condemn violence against women,” Ugandan Olympic Committee President Donald Rukare said in a social media post on Thursday. “This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure.”

Every 11 minutes on average, a woman or girl is killed by an intimate partner or family member somewhere in the world, according to figures from UN Women, the agency promoting gender equality, and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

“An emotional thought for Rebecca Cheptegei,” Hidalgo told a press conference on Friday, quoted by French media. “We saw her, her beauty, her strength, her freedom. Paris will not forget her, and we will dedicate a sports venue to her, so that her memory and her story will be present among us.”

Two elite Kenyan runners, Agnes Tirop and Damaris Mutua, were previously killed, allegedly by their partners, in the same area as Cheptegi within six months of one another.

Tirop’s death in October 2021 sparked protests that were amplified when hundreds of athletes took to the streets of the town of Iten calling for stricter laws and gender-based outreach centers.

Tirop’s husband is on trial for the 25-year-old runner’s murder.

Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.