NYRR Media Center

Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, a Kenyan-born runner who competes for Israel, was the runner-up in her TCS New York City Marathon debut in 2022, running 2:23:30. She has represented Israel in the marathon at the Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024 Olympics, where she most recently finished ninth.

In March 2020, Salpeter won the Tokyo Marathon in 2:17:45, setting the Israeli record and becoming the eighth-fastest woman marathoner in history. A year later she secured bronze at the World Athletics Championships Marathon and 28 days later got her second bronze in the European Athletics Championships 10,000 meters in an Israeli record time of 30:46.37. She previously won gold in the event at the 2018 European Championships. 

She claimed her third podium finish at an Abbott World Marathon Majors race, placing third in Boston in 2023, and nearly made the podium, finishing fourth at the 2023 World Athletics Championships Marathon in Budapest. 

Salpeter was raised in Kenya as a member of the Kalenjin tribe, growing up in a small village with no electricity or running water. She moved to Israel in 2008 to work as a nanny for the children of Kenya’s Ambassador to Israel. Running became an activity to get her out of the house after her workday was done, and that’s how she met her current coach and husband, Dan Salpeter, in 2011. The family now reside on a kibbutz in northern Israel and have a son, Roy, who was born in 2014. Salpeter became an Israeli citizen in March 2016, a few days before the cutoff to qualify for the Rio Olympics.