High-altitude Kenyan town Iten adapts as Olympic champions and amateurs flock to rarefied air

ITEN, Kenya (AP) — As dawn breaks over the sleepy town of Iten, its dusty tracks come alive with packs of runners keeping rhythm, often followed by cheerful children headed to school.

Some of the athletes are elite Kenyans. Others travel from farther afield.

All are here because this unassuming little town lies at about 2,400 meters (8,000 feet) above sea-level and has produced some of the best long-distance runners in the world.

To cater to the ever-growing interest from both professional and amateur athletes, hotels, lodges and short-stay rental apartments continue to spring up around the town, located 350 kilometers (217 miles) northwest of Nairobi.

“I came to Kenya to feel this elite running community here," said Ryan Mex of Malta.

Mex, a semi-professional runner and coach, brought three athletes with him to get a competitive edge ahead of Malta’s marathon season.

It's his first time here.

“Next time I want to come with a larger group since we really like the training environment here,” Mex said. "This is the best place in the world to come for a training camp.”

Iten is home to some 42,000 people, mostly subsistence farmers, and it has also been a temporary home to plenty of world champions, including two-time Olympic gold medalists Eliud Kipchoge (marathon) and David Rudisha (800 meters), both of Kenya. British four-time Olympic champion Mo Farah would train in Iten for months at a time.

The town was declared a World Athletics Heritage Landmark in 2019 and proudly calls itself the “Home of Champions.”

Lornah Kiplagat, a Kenyan-born three-time Olympian for the Netherlands, attended high school in Iten and now runs a training center here for runners who want to up their game.

“If you train at 2,400 meters, your lungs expand, your red blood cells increase, and so when you go to low altitude you feel like you are flying,” explained Kiplagat, the 2008 world half-marathon champion.

Amanal Petros, a top marathoner from Germany, spends six months at Kiplagat’s center every year. Born in the Eritrean highlands, he was accustomed to running at high altitude but Iten’s elevation isn’t the only reason why he keeps coming back.

“I’ve trained in many places in the USA and Europe,” he said. “Organizing a training partner in Europe is not easy. But in Iten, the home of champions, wherever you go you find a lot of athletes who can train with you.”

Jean Paul Fourier opened the Kerio View Hotel in 2002 starting with a just few rooms. It now has capacity for 50 guests and includes a fitness center.

“I made a small investment and it has really grown,” he said.

The main season runs from April to September.

“We see many foreigners flocking to not only my hotel but also neighboring hotels. There are many hotels springing up around the area, but we still get our share of visitors,” he said.

One man here still remembers what Iten was like before all this happened: Brother Colm O’Connell, former headmaster at St. Patrick’s High School, whose alumni include Rudisha, Vivian Cheruiyot, Matthew Birir and Brimin Kipruto.

O’Connell first came to Iten to teach in 1976.

“It was just a scattering of houses and a school called St. Patrick’s,” he said. “That was really the starting point of what Iten eventually became, what we see today.”

The town’s transformation started “when the sport became professional," he said.

"Before that, athletes were confined to their place of work. But when professionalism came in, athletes could now sit down with their managers and with shoe companies and decide no, I can become a full-time career athlete.”

The rest, as they say, is history. O’Connell went on to transform the athletics program at St. Patrick’s, and 25 of his students became world champions, some of whom came back here to run their own athletics programs.

The town around the school boomed, as runners from all over the world discovered its training potential. O’Connell estimates that in peak season there are around 500 visiting runners in the town at any one time.

“We see fun runners, we have runners with personal goals, we have people running a marathon to fundraise," he said. "In other words, running is a sport for everybody and it has something to offer everybody.”

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Athletes undergo a training session at Kamariny Stadium in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Maltese athletes in the company of locals train along the Iten-Kaptagat road in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Maltese athletes in the company of locals train along the Iten-Kaptagat road in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Eritrean-born German Amanal Petros after training at Kamariny Stadium in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Maltese athletes in the company of locals train along the Iten-Kaptagat road in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Eritrean-born German Amanal Petros, centre, interacts with other foreign athletes after training at Kamariny Stadium in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Maltese athletes in the company of locals train along the Iten-Kaptagat road in Iten Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Sports outfits are sold at the Iten Club in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

A view of the entrance to Iten, considered a Mecca for producing some of Kenya's most elite athletes and a training ground for other international top distance runners in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Eritrean-born German Amanal Petros shops at the Iten local market in Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya after his training on Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Amos Kimutai, the Operations administrator at the KipRun Athletics Camp, overlooks the Kerio Valley escarpment, one of the tourist attractions sites in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

Maltese athletes in the company of locals train along the Iten-Kaptagat road in Iten, Elgeyo Marakwet County, Kenya on Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Njuguna)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)