In 2012, Vivian Cheruiyot was named the Laureus Female Athlete of the Year and the Female Athlete of the Year by US Track and Field Magazine.

She was also voted one of the greatest sportswomen of all time by the Laureus World Sports Academy, becoming the first Kenyan woman and the second sportsperson from Kenya to hold this title. She was catapulted onto the international stage when she was barely 15 with her impressive second-place finish in the IAAF World Cross-Country Championships in 1999.

In 2009, Cheruiyot was conferred with the state Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW) after she clinched the 5,000m Olympic gold in Beijing, becoming the first Kenyan female runner to do so.

Cheruiyot, who was born in 1983, is at ease in the 3,000m, 5,000m and 10,000m races. She brought home the silver and bronze medals from the 2012 London Olympics for the 5,000m and 10,000m races respectively. She went on to set a new Olympic record when she won the hotly-contested Women’s 5,000m race in the 2016 Rio Olympics.  Cheruiyot won the Women’s elite race during the London Marathon in Britain in April 2018.