Much more than a training center:
THE 42 HOUSE
THE 42 HOUSE:
MUCH MORE THAN JUST
A TRAINING CENTRE!
MUCH MORE THAN JUST
A TRAINING CENTRE!
SO WHAT’S 42 HOUSE?
It’s a house that embraces a unique set of values to deliver sports training and personal support for the benefit of KIPRUN athletes. It’s a house that will give them the keys to sustainable global success.
“At KIPRUN, we believe that running is much more than just running, it’s a transformative journey. We believe that thanks to the wonders of running we could help to change the world into a better place. And if starting to run seems to be easy, we know that keeping on running is really hard. So our mission is clear : put all runners into the best conditions.
Our promise? To remove all pains and challenges they’ll find on their running journey to allow them to keep on running. That’s why, as close as possible to the runners, our engineers, designers and product managers imagine technical & innovative products and services for all runners.
Our goal? To let them focus only on running and on the thrill of running. This unmatched proximity we want to bulid with our runners and athletes, drive us everyday at KIPRUN. And to achieve this, we’ve set ourselves a standard of excellence: be present at the highest international level.
Therefore, the 42 house naturally roots in Iten, in Kenya, the home of champions, the birthplace of running where the world’s best runners are training. I am proud and very happy, to be wearing with all the KIPRUN team, this beautiful Kenyan project, a useful project, in line with our values and at the service of our mission. I am sure that this house will help us to boost the performance and excellence for all.”
Anthony DULIEU, KIPRUN LEADER
“It is with immense pride that DECATHLON and KIPRUN inaugurate this beautiful project, the 42 HOUSE in Iten, Kenya.
By Moving People Through the Wonders of Sport, 42 HOUSE will support the future elites of the running world, and where better to do so than in Iten, the almost mythical
"Home of Champions".
I look forward to closely following the wonderful sporting and educational journeys of the men and women that will pass through the House.
At Decathlon, we’re heading towards a new frontier, and 42 HOUSE will help to show the world that we are serious about developing the very best talent, and competing on elite global stages in running.”
Barbara MARTIN COPPOLA,
DECATHLON CEO
WHAT IS THE 42 HOUSE?
The 42 HOUSE is a house and location at high altitude in Iten, in the Rift Valley, where proximity and sharing
are the keys to athletic development and success, and which opened its doors in November 2023 to 14 of our KIPRUN athletes.
It can accommodate a maximum of 22 athletes enjoying a comprehensive monitoring programme, with 4 sports staff members: a sports director, 3 coaches, an operations director.
An educational supervisor is also present at the 42 HOUSE to guarantee group life and team building among the athletes, as well as a chef and a caretaker.
The 42 HOUSE is located in the heart of the iconic town of Iten, perched 2400 meters above sea level at the summit of the Rift Valley.
The 500 m2 main building is distinguished by its functional
architecture.
It houses 11 rooms of 25 m2 each, as well as a dining room and a gym, ideal for the physical and mental preparation of athletes.
The rooftop offers breathtaking panoramic views of the Rift Valley, adding a touch of serenity to this intense training environment.
The 42 HOUSE is much more than just a training centre. Why?
It’s an innovative approach and model that conveys our values while underpinning overall performance and excellence, of which proximity and loyalty are founding qualities.
“How can I sum up the 42 HOUSE? For me, it’s much more than a training camp!
Located in Iten, the home of champions, it is a house with a real family spirit.
A house where we will give our KIPRUN athletes the tools for complete, sustainable performance. Complete performance means offering them the best possible training
conditions.
It also means supporting them as people, because we believe that sporting success should go hand in hand with personal fulfillment.
That’s really what makes 42 HOUSE unique: combining sport with support in terms of education, career and financial management.
And the strongest example is that our athletes receive 100% of the prize money they win in their races.
We are convinced that the 42 HOUSE will boost the performances of our athletes and of the KIPRUN products, and ultimately turn their names and the KIPRUN brand on top in the running world.”
Amos KIMUTAI, 42 HOUSE Operations Director
A TAILOR-MADE SUPPORT TOOL
AND A QUALITATIVE APPROACH
AND A QUALITATIVE APPROACH
A tailor-made support tool and a qualitative approach
So, what’s so unique?
0% commission on athletes’ income!
> Financial support:
What sets the 42 HOUSE apart?
0% commission on athletes’ income!
Loyalty is therefore a vital quality for this 42 HOUSE project.
Aside from full board in the 42 HOUSE, athletes receive a monthly allowance of 20,000 shillings (about 125 euros, the average salary in Kenya being 15,000 shillings), which enables them to provide for their families’ needs.
Tailor-made support is also on provided, designed to help athletes to learn about the concepts of saving and investing. Partnerships have been agreed with several of Kenya’s banking institutions, with advisers who provide athletes with personalised support.
> Communications and media support:
The aim is to help them handle the public speeches as best as possible, as top level athletes (two of them, for example, are in the world top 20 over 10km) frequently called upon to talk when they participate in national and international competitions.
> Medical support:
In top level sport, physical and mental health are paramount. That’s why it’s vital that our athletes in the 42 HOUSE are both supported and monitored.
Nutrition also contributes to their wellbeing and impacts their performance, which is why we have a permanent chef working at our 42 HOUSE.
This tailored support translates into ingredients and tools they can harness both for their sporting careers and in
their lives after sport.
This support is also designed to facilitate eventual changes in their professional direction, offering them opportunities in line with the avenue and role they might choose when their top level sporting career comes to an end.
We will be working closely with DECATHLON, which now operates two stores here in Kenya.
When sport and education become one!
A partnership with two schools to support the younger generations
The 42 HOUSE is a sports, education and society-based project designed to support our resident athletes – but that’s not all. Because it’s important to anticipate the future and offer support to tomorrow’s athletes, from 2024 the 42 HOUSE project will work alongside more than 200 students aged between 13 and 18, thanks to a partnership with two schools, one based in Iten and the other in Cherangani.
This partnership is a pre-professional stepping stone designed to give talented youngsters the opportunity, after their education, to follow a transitional programme over two years.
The aim is to offer them the most seamless transition possible into the pro world, by teaching them the rigours of high level sport and introducing them to life in top flight athletics.
During these two years, some will rejoin the 42 HOUSE while others will follow other paths. For these, having DECATHLON anchored in Kenya will help create a close relationship that can steer them towards sport and retail-related jobs via introductory placements, should they so wish.
Continue to inspire future generations to dream with long-term support and close relationships - this is the mission that KIPRUN hopes to achieve by developing the 42 HOUSE.
THE ATHLETES
The 42 HOUSE well represented by our feminine athletes, including Viola, Nelvin, Alice and Christine!
Paul CHELIMO, double Olympic medallist and 42 HOUSE mentor
Paul CHELIMO, who joined the KIPRUN athletics team in 2023, was the natural choice to become a 42 HOUSE mentor.
The Kenyan-born athlete, 5,000m specialist and double Olympic medallist (silver in Rio in 2016 and bronze in Tokyo in 2021) is a daily inspiration for the athletes staying at the 42 HOUSE.
He grew up in Iten, so is very familiar with the 42 HOUSE area, where he lives for part of the year to fine-tune his preparations.
A TAILOR-MADE SUPPORT TOOL AND A QUALITATIVE APPROACH
A team delivering sustainable support
THE BIRTH OF THE
42 HOUSE
To understand how the 42 HOUSE came about, we need to remind ourselves of the KIPRUN mission.
Our mission is to create unrivalled proximity with runners everywhere, with our ambition to become a top 5 global Running brand.
To fulfil this aim, we’ve set ourselves a target: to seek out ultra-performance.
Kenya, the birthplace of running, stood out as the obvious location, when you consider that 60% of victories in the six major marathons (Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New-York) are held by Kenyan runners.
The 42 HOUSE is a unique project, in line with DECATHLON’s values and its mission to make sport a lever for global fulfillment. In this sense, it is both the athlete AND the man and woman who become better through sport. This ambition lies at the heart of the 42 HOUSE DNA: to help athletes win and progress, but also to support and help men and women grow.
That’s why the project is so unique, and why it’s so useful for athletes as a whole.
The differentiating factor of the 42 HOUSE in Iten,Kenya, lies in its capacity to foster performance, product excellence and overall excellence among athletes and across all facets of the KIPRUN brand.
Kenya may have spawned numerous champions, but it’s a country with considerable challenges and difficulties, faced not just by aspiring runners but by some of the greatest runners in the world.
The birth of the 42 House
As in any professional sport, running comes with certain obstacles that can make professional runners vulnerable, particularly in terms of the intermediaries and interested parties involved, such as race organisers, agents and, sometimes, families themselves.
In addition to this fact, the current world of professional sport dictates myriad and interdependent ingredients required for a young talent to flourish and become a high-performance athlete for the duration of their career, as well as an accomplished person.
This requires a combination of quality infrastructures, with excellent technical personnel for coaching, as well as access to education, and training in the basics of career management.
In short, being surrounded by the right people on a sporting, legal and financial level, and laying the right foundations for a successful career change are the key challenges facing young athletes destined for a top-flight career.
“Supporting people throughout their entire sports experience is in DECATHLON’s DNA.
KIPRUN teams have a strong commitment to working alongside budding athletes to help them achieve their long-term performance goal, through technical, high-performance running products.
The aim is to enable young Kenyans, from an early age, to have all the necessary tools for a successful pro career.”
Anthony DULIEU, KIPRUN Leader.
KIPRUN: the brand story
2008 marked the start of the KIPRUN story. It was a year that saw the launch of the KIPRUN 1000, the first running shoe designed for performance by KALENJI, a brand born in 2004 dedicated to running at DECATHLON.
In 2018, KALENJI shifted its focus more specifically onto the needs of performance-oriented road runners who like to challenge themselves over short and long distances.
This is how the KIPRUN project came into being, with a team of 21 passionate runners dedicated to performance.
At the same time, trail running was exploding as a major running sport.
In 2021, the EVADICT project dedicated to trail running at Decathlon was launched.
With a team of passionate expert trail runners, this project is for trail enthusiasts who run on all terrain over short and long distances.
That same year, the KIPRUN project became even stronger with the addition of the athletics family.
40 passionate athletes now work to design products to help the most demanding runners achieve their goals and smash their records!
A new chapter has opened in the history of running at DECATHLON.
The teams dedicated to trail running, road running and performance have decided to pool their skills and passions to collaborate on one project, coming together under a single flag: KIPRUN.
Technologies previously developed for road running will now benefit trail running, and vice versa.
All the expertise of our pro trail runners, athletes and road runners will be deployed on product excellence, which will benefit everyone who loves our running products!
This amalgamation of expertise is only natural when you consider that 7 out of 10 runners are trail or road runners*.
*Survey conducted by Esprit Running / Kantar Media
Uniteam Active (2023)
KIPRUN: fostering close ties to help you experience the thrill of running...
Our name, “KIPRUN”, sums up our mission pretty well!
It’s a contraction of “Keep on Running”, a mantra that every trailer or runner has surely repeated to themselves during a race, marathon, trail or training session when they’ve felt on the brink of physical and mental collapse!
This mantra gives us a second wind, as well as the courage and strength to push ourselves to the limit.
Because let’s be honest, running isn’t always the best fun. You often have to dig deep to reach your goals, to find the time when you’re a young parent, or to get motivated enough to start or get back into running. It can be a thankless sport sometimes, but an incredibly addictive one!
Good reasons to lose motivation or give up can often overwhelm our desire to run...
“Keep on Running” is the mission our teams set themselves each day to support and meet the needs of passionate trailers and runners.
Our engineers, designers and product managers come up with ever more technical and shrewd products and services to make the sport easier for runners.
KIPRUN is an expert brand and running ally, covering 100% of runners’ needs and allowing them to focus completely on enjoying the thrill of the sport!
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