About Samuel Wanjiru
Samuel Kamau Wanjirū (10 November 1986 – 15 May 2011) was a Kenyan long-distance runner who won the 2008 Beijing Olympics Marathon in an Olympic record time of 2:06:32; becoming the first Kenyan to win the Olympic gold in the marathon. He became the youngest gold medallist in the marathon since 1932. He held the 10,000m U20 World Record from 2005 until 2024 and set the half marathon world record 3 times. In 2009, he won both the London Marathon and Chicago Marathon, running the fastest marathons ever recorded in the United Kingdom and United States, respectively. He retained his Chicago title in 2010 in a season fraught with injury. In 2011, he died after a fall from a balcony at his home in Nyahururu following a domestic dispute. He had success on the Japanese cross country circuit, where he won the Fukuoka International Cross Country at sixteen years old in 2003.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.