Tirunesh Dibaba (, Amharic: ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 1 June 1985) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner athlete who competes in long-distance track events and international road races. She has won three Olympic track gold medals, five World Championship track gold medals, four individual World Cross Country (WCC) adult titles, and one individual WCC junior title. Tirunesh was the 5,000 metres (outdoor track) world record holder until 2020. She is nicknamed the "baby-faced destroyer."Athlete profile on london2012.com . Retrieved 4 August 2012.
At the 2005 IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, Tirunesh became the first woman to win the 5000 m and 10000 m at the same championship. She is the one of two women (the other Sonia O'Sullivan) who won the short and long course World Cross Country title at the same championship (2005 in Saint-Galmier, France). With her 2003 World championship title, she became the youngest World Champion at the age of 18 years and 90 days.
Tirunesh comes from a sporting family of several Olympic medalists, which includes her sisters Genzebe, Ejegayehu and Anna, and her cousin, Derartu Tulu. The matriarch of the Dibaba athletics dynasty, Tirunesh is the most decorated of the family.
Background Tirunesh was born in the village of Bekoji, Arsi Zone of the Oromia Region and the fourth of six children. She is of Oromo descent. She began competing in athletics at the age of 14. She was raised in the high-altitude Arsi Zone in Oromia, Ethiopia but has lived in Addis Ababa, the capital, since 2000.
Tirunesh comes from an athletic family. Her older sister Ejegayehu won the silver medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. As of 25 June 2017, her younger sister Genzebe holds the world record for 1,500 metres, 2,000 metres and the indoor world records for 1,500 metres, one mile (pending ratification), 3,000 metres, and 5,000 metres. Tirunesh and Genzebe are the only siblings in history to hold concurrent world records. Their cousin, Derartu Tulu, won gold medals in the 10,000 metres at the 1992 and 2000 Summer Olympics, the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics, the silver medal in the 10,000 metres at the 1995 World Championships, and the gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2001 World Championships.
Career
Junior races
Tirunesh's first fully international outdoor event as a junior was the 2001 World Cross Country Championships (WCCC) in Ostend, Belgium, where, at the age of 15, she finished fifth.
Tirunesh finished second in the junior race at the 2002 WCCC in Dublin, Ireland before winning that race in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2003.
Tirunesh also earned a silver medal in the 5000 metres at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, 1.05 seconds behind Meseret Defar and just 0.05 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Vivian Cheruiyot.
2003: First World Championships gold medal
In May, Tirunesh won the only Ethiopian national track championship of her senior career. The event was the 5000 metres, with Meseret Defar finishing second.
In Paris at her World Championships debut, Tirunesh won the 5000 metres in a sprint finish against Marta Dominguez of Spain and Edith Masai of Kenya. This made her the youngest athlete to win an individual gold medal at the World Championships. Recalling the race, Tirunesh said, "I competed in Paris only because I had the 'A' standard. No one expected me to win. There was no pressure from anywhere. All of them [the pre-race favorites] were looking at each other [during the race] and no one was focusing on the finish line. I just went for it and was surprised that I had won."
In October, she finished fourth in the 5000 metres at the All-Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria and second in the same event at the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, India. Meseret Defar won both races. Tirunesh said, "I was a bit tired after Paris and did not train well. I was not ready to run those races."
2004: Bronze medalist at the Athens Olympics
At the Summer Olympics in Athens, Tirunesh finished third in the 5000 metres, behind Meseret Defar and Kenyan Isabella Ochichi. At age 19, she became the youngest-ever medalist for Ethiopia at the Olympics. She said about the race, "I was a bit overweight and after following Elvan [Abeylegesse] at the early part of the race, I just could not follow the rest at the end. I was not disappointed. I had learned my lesson."
2005: Double gold medalist at the World Championships
At the Reebok Boston Indoor Games in January, Tirunesh set a world record in the 5000 meters with a finish time of 14:32.93. This was 6.36 seconds faster than the previous world record set by Berhane Adere. Finishing second was Tirunesh's sister Ejegayehu, over 25 seconds behind. She faded during the last 1000 metres after running with Tirunesh through 4000 metres in a hand-timed 11:46.2. Tirunesh's 1000 metre splits were 2:56.0 - 2:55.2 - 3:00.0 - 2:55.0 - 2:46.8.
Tirunesh won two gold medals in March at the World Cross Country Championships in Saint-Galmier, France. She was the second woman, the other being Sonia O'Sullivan, to win two events since these championships began in 1998.
Dibaba out-sprinted her sister Ejegayehu and Adere to win the 10,000 metres at the World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. One week later, Tirunesh broke the championships record while defeating Meseret Defar and sister Ejegayehu to win the 5000 metres and become the first woman to win the 10,000/5000 metres double at the same World Championships. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) recognized these two victories as the 2005 Female Performances of the Year. Just before these races, Tirunesh said, "When I won [the 2003 World Championships] in Paris, everybody called me the 'little girl'. I am no longer that little girl. I have matured and certainly am afraid of no one during competition."
2006: Tirunesh-Defar rivalry intensifies Tirunesh won the long race on 1 April at the World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. The next day, however, she was unable to finish the short race.
Tirunesh won five of the six Golden League 5000 metre races, which earned her a bonus of US$83,333. She also won the 5000 metres at the World Athletics Final. Tirunesh and Meseret Defar raced against each other in five of those seven races, with Tirunesh winning four times.
Defar defeated Tirunesh in the 5000 metres at the African Championships in Bambous, Mauritius, and in the 3000 metres at the World Athletics Final.
2007: Successful defense of 10,000 metres World Championship
Tirunesh earned a US$25,000 bonus for breaking her own 5000 metres indoor world record at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on 27 January, with a finish time of 14:27.42. Tirunesh's 1000 metre split times were 2:55.28 - 2:53.2 - 2:51.5 - 2:56.68 - 2:46.4. She held this record until Meseret Defar broke it on 18 February 2009 in Stockholm with a finish time of 14:24.37.
During the 10,000 metres race at the World Championships in Osaka, Tirunesh again used her sprint finish to overhaul Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse, whose second-place finish here was expunged in 2017 for doping.IAAF March 2017 Newsletter Tirunesh won despite having a mid-race tumble and abdominal pains throughout the race. Tirunesh's finish time was 31:55.41. She thus became the only woman to win consecutive 10,000 metre titles at the World Championships. She did not compete in the 5000 metres.
2008: Double gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics & 5000 metres world record
At the 6 June Bislett Games in Oslo, a Golden League event, Tirunesh Dibaba set a world record in the 5,000 metres which would stand for over twelve years, running the distance in 14:11.15. Lucy Wangui Kabuu from Kenya ran a personal best and finished in second place, 22 seconds behind Tirunesh. Tirunesh's sister Ejegayehu Dibaba finished in third place with a time of 14:36.78 (4.04 seconds off her personal best). Tirunesh bettered Meseret Defar's world record by 5.48 seconds. Tirunesh said after the race, "I've been thinking about this for a long time and this is a very special day for me. I was trying my best, and I knew I was going to break the record with two laps to go. The early part of the race was pretty good, but at 3,000 metres we were a little behind, so then I had to catch up on the pace. I could have run faster if the pacing was a little better." Tirunesh's 800 metre split times were: 2:13.7 - 2:19.0 (4:32.7 through 1600 metres) - 2:22.5 (6:55.2 through 2400 metres and 8:03.7 through 2800 metres) - 2:17.8 (9:13.0 through 3200 metres) - 2:15.4 (11:28.4 through 4000 metres)- 2:10.1 (13.38.5 though 4800 metres), with a last 200 metre split of 32.7.
Six days later, Tirunesh defeated her sister Ejegayehu by 0.68 seconds in the 10,000 metres at the Golden Spike Grand Prix in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Tirunesh's finish time was 31:03.37.
Dibaba won the 10,000 metres at the Summer Olympics in Beijing on 15 August. Her finish time of 29:54.66 broke the existing Olympic record of 30:17.49, which had been set by cousin Derartu Tulu at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. In addition, her finish time was the second fastest 10,000 metres of all time and an African record. The previous African record of 30:04.18 was set by Berhane Adere at the 2003 World Championships.
Seven days later, Tirunesh won the 5000 metres, defeating the defending champion Meseret Defar by 2.72 seconds. This made Tirunesh the first woman to win both the 5,000 and the 10,000 metres at the same Olympic games.
Tirunesh was named the 2008 Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News.2008 T&FN Women's Athlete Of The Year: Tirunesh Dibaba . 25 December 2008 The IAAF awarded its Female Performance of the Year to Tirunesh and Czech javelin thrower Barbora Špotáková. Tirunesh was nominated for IAAF World Athlete of the Year, which was won instead by Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva for the third time.
2009: World record at 15 kilometres during injury-shortened season
Injuries prevented Tirunesh from competing in the World Cross Country Championships in Amman, Jordan and the World Championships in Berlin.
On 15 November, Tirunesh won the Zevenheuvelenloop 15 kilometres road race in Nijmegen, Netherlands in a world best time of 46:28. This bettered Kayoko Fukushi's previous world best by almost half a minute. (Tirunesh's record was broken by Florence Kiplagat on 15 February 2015.) This was her first competitive road race since 2005, but she downplayed the idea of moving on to road running, stating that the track remained her priority. Her 5 kilometre splits were 15:58 – 15:25 – 15:05. She said, "Although I trained a lot together with my husband for this race, a roadrace is something different. I did not know what I could expect. Therefore, I was not that fast in the beginning. ... After 10 kilometres, I pressed the pace and in the final three kilometres it felt like flying. It feels good as you hear after the finish that your husband also has won."
2010
In February, Tirunesh ran the third fastest indoor two-mile race to date (9:12.23) at the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham, U.K. Her mile splits were 4:41.2 followed by 4:31.1.
At the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Tirunesh finished fourth.
Tirunesh successfully defended her 10,000 metres title at the African Championships in Nairobi with a finish time of 31:51.39. Her last 400 metres was timed at 61 seconds.
2012: Successful defense of 10,000 metres Olympic gold medal
A stress fracture in her right leg kept Tirunesh out of competition for 16 months. She returned to racing on 31 December 2011 to win the 10 kilometre San Silvestre Vallecana Silver Label Road Race in Madrid, Spain by overcoming Gelete Burka in a sprint finish.
She won the two-mile race at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on 4 February and took her second career win at the Carlsbad 5000 road race in April.