A YouTube screengrab of Kenya's Evans Chebet with his coach (turned interpreter) at a pre-race interview ahead of the New York City Marathon in November 2022. Image source; Letsrundotcom When Kenya’s long-distance runner Evans Chebet spoke to journalists ahead of, and after his New York City and Boston Marathon races, his interviews broke the language mold. Chebet who won both races — the New York City a few weeks ago and the Boston in April this year — gave his media interviews in the language that was most comfortable to him, Kiswahili. His choice of Kiswahili over English, which has been the standard, has elicited many positive reactions from Africans online, with many expressing their pride and joy. Many even called on other runners to emulate him. Kiswahili is the most widely spoken language in Kenya. In 2019, over a quarter of the population surveyed spoke Kiswahili as their primary language. It is also one of two official languages. Taught alongside English in schools, most Kenyans, especially in rural areas, speak Kiswahili fluently as a second or third language. East African runners are among the world’s best and have dominated ever since they burst on the scene at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics. Kenya and Ethiopia, another country with a variety of native languages, are neck and neck to earn the designation of the country with the best marathon runners. According to Global Sports Matters, a Kenyan or Ethiopian has been the men's winner of the Boston Marathon 26 times out of 29 from 1991 to 2019. For women, these nationalities took first place 21 out of 24 times. For Chebet and many runners from East Africa, many of whom come from the Nandi (Kalenjin) in Kenya and Bekoji in Ethiopia, the two countries which have consistently produced the world’s best runners, their first language is Kalenjin and Amharic respectively. The NYC and Boston marathons are part of the Abbott majors- a series consisting of six of the largest and most renowned marathons in the world: Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon, TCS London Marathon, BMW Berlin Marathon, Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and TCS New York City Marathon. So why have the race organisers, especially at the Abbott World Marathon Majors, never considered having professional interpreters, especially for the Kiswahili, Kalenjin, and Amharic languages? Is it their responsibility or does that fall on the athlete's national governing bodies? Based on many of the reactions online, the time has come for race organisers to consider this as athletes embrace giving speeches and interviews in their native languages. East Africans online, not just from Chebet’s home country, have hailed him for glorifying Kiswahili in his pre-and post-race interviews, particularly at the recently held New York City Marathon. Some of the comments in a YouTube video of his Boston Marathon posted by CBS Boston read: This is so amazing, we should be proud of our language than to (sic) struggle with English. I'm so proud of you Evans Chebet. The rest of (the) athletes should emulate him. He his(sic) a good example ☺️ . by Mercy Rotich In his Twitter post with a video of Chebet’s post-race interview, Ja Nyakach said “That's the way it should be.” Evans Chebet Boston and New York Marathon winner did the post race interview in Ki Swahili , vile inafaa … pic.twitter.com/8PUKH5Zslj — Ja Nyakach 🇰🇪 (@Ja_Kopul) November 7, 2022 Many such as Elias Kimutai noted how significant Chebet’s use of Kiswahili was in the larger context of language as part of one's identity This is part of Africa rising phenomenon… Language is very key to a people's identity. Kiswahili is being taught in many Africa universities , China and South America… — Elias Kimutai (@elkimkip) November 7, 2022 At hand was an interpreter, his coach in the pre-race and a volunteer, in Chebet’s post-race remarks in New York. It was however quite clear that both the coach and the volunteers at the New York City race were struggling with the language. Whilst congratulating Chebet and sharing their pride and respect in, not just his win but also for his remarks in a language they identify more with, many made fun of the interpreter who, due to her lack of a command of the language, in some instances used wrong words such as ‘mashindo’ to mean ‘Mashindano.’ There is no such word as ‘Mashindo’ in the Kiswahili language. Mashindano however is the Kiswahili word for race. Many even called her a fraud. Hai the mkalani is fake 😜🤣🤣🤣.