The Catholic missionary and the Masai running champion

In 2012, David Rudisha, a Masai warrior from Kenya, ran what many say was the greatest race in the history of the Olympics. He led the 800m final from the front and smashed his own world record, becoming the first man ever to run under 1.41. In the words of Seb Coe, ‘Bolt was good, Rudisha was magnificent.’ In interviews after the race he thanked one man above all others for his success: an Irish Catholic missionary named Brother Colm O’Connell — a man with no official athletics training who had nonetheless been David’s coach since he first began to run. And if David wins another gold at the Commonwealth Games next week, he’ll have Colm to thank again.

Brother Colm arrived in Kenya from Ireland as a missionary in 1976, more than ten years before David Rudisha was born. Colm had the idea that he might teach geography at St Patrick’s, a boys’ school at the edge of the Rift Valley.