She ran 2 hours, 9 minutes, 56 seconds, beating the old record by 1 minute 57 seconds and her own personal best by five minutes. NBC's commentators compared it to the moon landing. One cried, "Bring it on Neil Armstrong!"
Asked afterward about people who believed she was doping, Chepngetich said, "People must talk. I don't know." Five months later, she failed a doping test. The Athletics Integrity Unit prosecuted the case, and she got the ban. Her record survives because she passed the test she took after the race itself.
Brett Clothier, head of the Athletics Integrity Unit, told The Guardian's Sean Ingle the situation is "not satisfactory, to be frank." He said the world anti-doping code is "pretty clearcut" on athletes' rights, even for those found guilty of an offense. Ingle writes that the record standing still damages the sport's credibility. People in athletics now talk about her reluctantly, the way you might talk about a relative who joined a mysterious cult.
The sport cheered a five-minute leap, and now it cannot take it back.