Lonah Chemtai Salpeter

Chemtai came in first among the women in the 2016 Tel Aviv Marathon in 2:40:16, almost five minutes below the qualification time for the 2016 Olympics.[8][13]

Chemtai competed for Israel at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the marathon.[15][16][17] By the 30th kilometer, her time put her in the top half of the runners, ranking her approximately 90th.[18] She left the race at the 33rd kilometer.[18] She explained on Facebook: “Unfortunately, I was forced to stop by a shoulder problem. As you all know, I’m still nursing my 20-month-old son. During my training in Kenya, I tried to stop, but it caused me pain and a shoulder problem due to running with breasts full of milk. This limited me in the European championships in Amsterdam (a half-marathon) and happened again today. I promise to attain respectable achievements in the future and am going forward with head held high.”[18]

In the 2017 London World Championship Marathon, she ran a 2:40, coming in 41st.[7]

Salpeter, center, at the 2018 European Athletics Championships

In May 2018 she won the 2018 European 10,000m Cup in London, with a time of 31:33.03, a new Israeli national record.[19] In July 2018 she won the 1500 m at the Israeli National Championships with a time of 4:11.69.[19]

On August 8, 2018, Chemtai won the 10,000 meters 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin with a time of 31:43.29.[20][21][19] She became the first Israeli athlete to win a gold medal at the championships.[7] On August 12, 2018, Chemtai miscounted the number of laps in a race and stopped a lap early by mistake in the final of the 5,000 meters 2018 European Athletics Championships in Berlin in which she had been in close second place, depriving her of a medal.[22][7][23]

On November 25, 2018, she won the Florence Marathon, setting an Israeli national record and course record of 2:24:17.[24] It was only her fifth marathon.[7] As of November 2018 she also held Israeli national records for 1,500, 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 meters, as well as the half marathon.[25]

In March 2019, she won the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon in Rome, Italy, with a time of 1:06:40.[26] In April 2019 she came in second in the Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon in Prague, with a time of 1:06:09.[19] On May 5, 2019, she won the Prague Marathon, with a course record 2:19:46 time, clocking the 24th-best time for a woman in that distance in history, the third-best European time ever, and a new Israeli national record.[27]

In July 2019 she won a silver medal in the 2019 European 10,000m Cup in London, with an Israeli national record of 31:15.78.[26] In September 2019, she broke the European record in 10K by 17 seconds, with a time of 30:05, which is the second-best time in history[28]

On September 28, she ran the women's marathon at the IAAF World Championships in Doha.

In March 2020, Chemtai won the women's event at the Tokyo marathon with a time of 2:17:45, setting a new record in the women's race.[29] She will represent Israel at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[30]