NGUVU RUNNING
ATHLETES
Click photos or names for bios.
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Click photos or names for bios.
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Nageso Nyafaro is an Ethiopian refugee living and training in Iten, Kenya, with hopes of making the 2028 Refugee Olympic Team. After leaving his homeland at age 19 to avoid being arrested by the Ethiopian government, Nageso spent eight years living in hot and desolate Kakuma Refugee Camp in Turkana County, Kenya, where he became a runner to make himself busy and was an interpreter and community worker for various humanitarian relief agencies. A gregarious young man who serves as a pacemaker for international runners when they visit Iten, he often sounds like a fortune cookie when he speaks. “Something good at end always difficult at beginning,” he says.
A lifelong runner since sixth grade, Jason has an extensive career as a coach, exercise physiologist, college professor, speaker, and author of 15 books and 400 articles. He is the 2011 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, two-time recipient of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, & Nutrition Community Leadership award, and has given a TED Talk, How Running Like an Animal Makes Us Human. He is also the creator of a run coaching certification that was obtained by coaches and fitness professionals in 26 countries before being acquired by International Sports Sciences Association in 2022. In 2021, Jason became the first American distance running coach to live and coach in Kenya.
An Iten, Kenya native, Collins earned a scholarship to the University of Arizona, where he was the 2016 Pac-12 Conference Champion at 800 meters. While in college, he ran 47.95 for 400 meters, 1:46.87 for 800 meters, and 3:43.86 for 1,500 meters. He returned to his hometown of Iten after graduation to help the next generation of Kenyan runners. He is the younger brother of Olympians Sylvia and Hilda Kibet.
