On April 15, Marko Cheseto Lemtukei set a new world record in the marathon for bilateral amputee athletes. Cheseto completed the 2019 Boston Marathon in 2:42:24.
“We salute Marko for his tremendous achievement and contribution to the remarkable continuing legacy of ‘firsts’ established by athletes with their iconic Cheetah running prostheses,” said Jon Sigurdsson, president and CEO of Össur, a global prosthetics and orthopedics company. “Marko joins the rarefied company of Team Össur member Richard Whitehead, who first paved the way for amputee marathon runners when he set the first world record in 2010 for bilateral above-knee amputees.”
Born and raised in Kapenguria, Kenya, Cheseto came to the United States on an athletic scholarship at the University of Alaska Anchorage. There, he set several collegiate track and field records before losing both legs below the knee in 2011 due to an accident that resulted in severe frostbite.
Just 18 months after undergoing his double amputation, Cheseto received a pair of Össur Flex-Run with Nike sole running blades as a grant from Össur and the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Now in his mid-30s and a father to three daughters, he’s focused on continuing to improve his times, with a goal of completing a marathon in under two hours.
“No matter what a person wants to accomplish, it’s important to have mental preparedness and acknowledge that limb loss is not an excuse to stop trying,” Cheseto said.
For information about a new Para Athletic Division in the 2020 Boston Marathon, visit https://bit.ly/2ZyAgyA.
