With unique talents, Cheseto is arguably one of Kenya's best athletes to have emerged in the sporting scene. The Florida-based now US citizen athlete has the fastest known time for a double-leg amputee: 2 hours 37 minutes and 23 seconds. In other words, Cheseto is capable of running six-minute marathons for just over 42 kilometres.
The journey he took to get to this stage took him across two continents and through immense physical and emotional pain.
Cheseto’s athletic career began as a boy in Kenya, when he still had both of his feet. He was inspired by Tegla Loroupe, the first African woman to hold the world marathon record and win the New York City Marathon, who also happened to be his aunt.
Cheseto was later recruited to run at the University of Alaska, where he ran the 5k and 10k. He also convinced his coach to recruit his cousin and close friend, William Ritekwiang. But in 2011 Ritekwiang took his own life, and Cheseto blamed himself for not being able to help.
One night, deep in grief, Cheseto took some antidepressants, went for a run in the woods, and blacked out. He had overdosed. He woke up in the snow three days later, unable to feel his legs. His feet were frostbitten and developed gangrene, and his legs had to be amputated below the knee.
His world had shifted. He was fitted with walking prostheses. At first, Cheseto didn’t think running would be in his future. He had never seen anyone wearing prostheses, and he had never heard of the Paralympics.
But he started running again in 2012 on his walking prostheses. Although they were not made for running, it felt good, he says. He decided not to let the trauma of losing his cousin and his feet get the best of him. “I was trying to find a purpose in life, something that I could be proud of,” he said, speaking to a Sports media. “And running was that.”
In 2013, he received his first running prostheses from the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). Running blades can cost $15,000 (Ksh 1.5M) each, and they need to be highly specialized for each person.
Cheseto decided to try to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics in sprinting events, but that didn’t work out, so he shifted course to the marathon. His first was the 2018 New York Marathon, and his second was Boston in 2019.
Running is not merely an athletic pursuit for Cheseto, however. CAF and the prosthesis maker Össur hold running clinics around the country, and Cheseto has volunteered at them over the years, helping amputees learn to run.
“At first, running was for me. I wanted to do this for my own sanity,” Cheseto said. But he soon realized that other people related to what he had been through. “The only difference between me and so many people that I have talked to and have shared their pain is that mine is physical pain. I am not saying I don’t have internal struggles and pains just like everyone else … but my physical wounds helped people to feel comfortable sharing their pain.”
Bob Babbitt, co-founder of CAF, is a keen admirer of Cheseto. “When somebody is going through trauma, somebody is lying in a hospital bed and they turn on the TV and they see Marko running, it gives people hope,” he said. “Not every double amputee is going to run a 2:37 marathon, but knowing the opportunity is there – that is huge.”
Cheseto also works with amputees in his job as a technician at Prosthetic & Orthotic Associates, a company that fits patients with prostheses and that he joined after receiving his own prosthetic care there for years. However, challengers still loom for double amputees like Cheseto.
One example came in February 2020, when he was competing at the Disney Princess Half Marathon, which he had hopes of winning. The race has separate categories for athletes with disabilities and those without. Cheseto said that before the race, the race director, Jon Hughes, told him that if he finished first overall, he wouldn’t be recognized as the overall winner.
For his part, Hughes said that he was “thrilled” to have Cheseto in the race but there were concerns his prostheses might give him an unfair advantage. Hughes says he reached out to USA Track & Field for guidance, “and the bottom line is, we could not get anything definitive.” In the end, Cheseto finished fourth overall despite one of his prostheses coming off during the race.
Cheseto is adamant that victory would have been deserved. “There’s nothing advantageous about me losing my feet, and I’m talking from an experience of having been an able-bodied athlete for more than 20 years.”
At major marathons, where the presence of the best runners in the world means overall victory is out of reach, the problem is different. Cheseto has never run in a marathon that recognizes him as the fastest in his classification. At the 2019 Chicago Marathon, when Cheseto ran a world best, no race officials acknowledged his achievement when he crossed the finish line.
The new para athletics divisions are vision impairment, upper-limb impairment, and lower-limb impairment, and each includes various classifications. Cheseto’s classification is T62, for double-leg, below-the-knee amputees.
These divisions create a space for para athletes to be recognized for their achievements with awards and prize money. They also create a physical space: the ambulatory para runners will have a separate start time, no longer mixed in with the main crowd. Cheseto runs on prosthetic blades that are curved in the back, which means he can’t stand still on them without rolling backward. He needs to keep stepping back and forth, which can be a problem in a crowded starting area.
The future looks secure for Cheseto. As well as his job with prosthetics, he is sponsored by Össur and Nike. He says that their help, and the ongoing support he gets from POA and his wife, Amanda, and the rest of his family have allowed him to reach this point.
In the process of sharing his story, Cheseto has become an advocate for mental health. Cheseto decided he could shine a light on others who have gone through challenges, so he has been interviewing people and sharing their stories through his YouTube channel. “I felt like I needed more angles to tell the same story of: You know what? Falling down is OK. But the most important part is how many times you get up,” he said.
What a remarkable athlete Cheseto is.