Mary Moraa

Life and work

Mary Moraa (born 15 June 2000) is a Kenyan athlete who specialises in the 800 metres. She won the gold medal at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, a bronze medal in the event at the 2022 World Athletics Championships and a gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Moraa is the Kenyan record holder for the 400 metres. She was the 2022 Diamond League 800 m champion. She also holds the world best in the 600 metres.

Moraa was orphaned at age 2 after the death of her father and then her mother. She grew up with her grandparents, in Kisii in western Kenya. She won an education bursary through running.

Moraa specialized in the 400 metres distance until 2021. She made her international debut at the World Under-18 Championships in Nairobi and won the silver medal in the event with a personal best time of 53.31 seconds. The following year, the 18-year-old placed fifth over the same distance at the World U20 Championships held in Tampere, Finland, clocking new best of 52.85 s in the heats.

In 2019, she won in the 400 m the African U20 title, Kenyan senior title, and placed fourth at the African Games held in Rabat, Morocco. She reached the semi-finals in her individual event at the Doha World Championships. Her season's best was 51.75 s. She made her debut in the 800 metres that year.

Moraa transitioned to the 800 metres in 2020, and represented Kenya at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics in 2021 competing in the event, where she was eliminated in the semi-finals with a time of 2:00.47.

In July 2022, Moraa won the bronze medal in the 800 m at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, clocking a personal best of 1:56.71 behind Athing Mu (1:56.30) and Keely Hodgkinson (1:56.38). The following month, she won a gold in the event at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games after storming through to beat Hodgkinson in the final. She went from first to last and back to first in that race. In September, Moraa became the Diamond League 800 m champion after she won final in Zürich.

Moraa's move from the 400 metres to the 800 metres is an important part of her development. It brought the speed required for a single lap into an event demanding the judgment to distribute that speed over two. Her medals in Eugene, Birmingham and Budapest mark the progression from a world bronze in 2022 to the world title in 2023. The Olympic bronze in Paris added another major championship setting to that record. Her career is therefore more than a list of finishing positions: it traces an athlete developing a competitive approach across events and seasons.

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