Updated 8 August 2008

TIRUNESH Dibaba, Ethiopia   
(3000/5000m, cross country)

Born 1 June, 1985, Chefe, near Bekoji, Arsi region, Ethiopia.
Lives in Addis Ababa.
Club: Corrections (Prison Police).
Manager: Mark Wetmore.
Coaches: Woldemeskel Kostre, Tolossa Kotu (national), Hussein Shebo (club).

Fourth of six children. Older sister Ejegayehu (b. 1982) is 2004 Olympic silver medalist at 10,000m; younger brother Dejene (b. 1989) shows promise at 800m; younger sister Genzebe (b. 1990) placed 5th in the 2007 World Cross Country Championships junior race. Former Olympic champion Derartu Tulu is their cousin. Informally engaged to Olympic 10,000m silver medalist Sileshi Sihine.

The Dibaba sisters grew up near the town of Bekoji hearing about their cousin Derartu winning two Olympic gold medals and a World Championship at 10,000m, but their early athletic efforts were most directly inspired by another cousin, Bekelu Dibaba (whom they refer to as their sister), who was a moderately successful international runner and now lives in Belgium. Tirunesh’s older sister Ejegayehu began running competitively in 1998; Tirunesh followed a year later.

Tirunesh moved to Addis Ababa in 2000 to live with her sister and cousin Bekelu while finishing high school. She arrived too late for school registration, however, and facing the choice of returning to Bekoji or finding something to do in the big city, she turned to running. With the help of Bekelu, who was a member of the Corrections police sports club, she joined the club and began training fulltime. Within a year she qualified for Ethiopia’s 2001 junior World Cross team and, not yet 16, finished a close 5th in the mud in Ostend.

In her first full year of international running, 2002, Tirunesh fell just short of the top spot in several major competitions. She was runner-up to Kenya's Viola Kibiwot in the Junior Women's race at the World Cross in Dublin, to Deena Drossin's world road best in the Carlsbad (California) 5 km, to her teammate Meseret Defar in the 5000m at the World Junior Championships in Jamaica, and to Werknesh Kidane (whom she had beaten at Carlsbad) in the Great Ethiopian Run.

The following year, she broke out of her rut in the most emphatic way, winning the 5000m at the Paris World Championships and becoming the youngest individual winner in the history of the championships. Yet for all her youth, Tirunesh’s performances earlier in 2003 had showed her potential.

She streaked past favored Werknesh to take the 4km title at Ethiopia’s World Cross trials, and strode to a clear win in the junior World Cross in Lausanne. In June, she stayed with Werknesh and their countrywoman Berhane Adere until the final half-lap of a 5000m world record attempt in Oslo, Tirunesh setting a World junior record (14:39.94) in the process. And in July she won the Ethiopian title at 5000 over a formidable field.

2004 was a year of mixed results. In early January, she whipped a top class field in Newcastle's Great North Cross Country, defeating cousin Derartu for the first time. She set two indoor World junior records, 14:53.99 for 5000 in Boston and 8:33.56 for 3000m in Birmingham, and was barely outsprinted by countrywoman Meseret. She took 2nd in the 4 km race at the World Cross in Brussels and notched her second outdoor World junior mark (14:30.88) in the Bislett GL 5000, assuring her selection for the Olympics.

In the Athens 5000m final, she followed Ethiopian-born Turk Elvan Abeylegesse but couldn’t stay with Kenya’s Isabella Ochichi when she took the lead in the oppressive heat, with Meseret and Tirunesh in tow. As Meseret sprinted past the Kenyan with 200m to go, Tirunesh took bronze, becoming the youngest ever Ethiopian Olympic medallist.

Early in 2005 she smashed the World 5000m indoor record in Boston, her 14:32.93 taking nearly seven seconds off Berhane Adere’s previous mark. Back in Addis Ababa for the Ethiopian World Cross trials, she sprinted past Meselech Melkamu in a thrilling finish to take the 8 km title and was named to both the short and long course World Cross teams in view of her form, which she declared the best ever.  

In France, Tirunesh ran with Werknesh behind Ochichi and Alice Timbilil in the long race, and kicked with 400m left to win. The next day, she became the second woman after Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan in 1998 and the third athlete after her compatriot Kenenisa Bekele to take double gold when she left Werknesh and Ochichi in her wake, signalling that 2005 was to be her year.

One week later, Tirunesh matched Briton Paula Radcliffe’s recognised 5K road world best of 14:51 at the Carlsbad 5000, but she suffered a shock defeat in the May Ethiopian track championships 5000m when World junior Cross Country champion Gelete Burka sprinted past on the last lap.

At the Helsinki World Championships, Tirunesh eclipsed her own World Cross double by becoming the first woman to achieve distance double gold. She beat defending champion Berhane in a 58.53 last lap sprint and led her and her own sister Ejegayehu in a sweep of the 10,000m ahead of China’s Olympic champion Xing Huina, before spearheading a historic sweep of the top four places in the 5000m, this time outsprinting Meseret in a 58.19 last 400m, with Ejegayehu taking bronze and Meselech Melkamu fourth.

At the September World Athletics Final Gala she collected the IAAF award for the female Performance of the Year for her Championships efforts.

In January 2006, an attempt on her own 5000m world indoor mark gave Tirunesh the second fastest time ever, 14:35.46.

An attempt at a second golden World Cross Country double in Fukuoka was her season’s focus, but illness cost Tirunesh three days’ training in the week before the Championships, and she suffered from stitches during the long course race in Fukuoka in which the Netherlands’ Lornah Kiplagat took the lead almost from the gun until the bell lap. But Tirunesh remained in contact and kicked ferociously on the final hill, successfully defending her title. The illness and loss of training caught up to her the next day, though, when she dropped out of the short race, and saw Gelete take the gold.

Tirunesh’s outdoor season was dominated by her bid for six Golden League wins and a share of the $1 million jackpot. She took a decisive victory in Oslo, winning the 5000m in a personal best 14:30.40 (even as her compatriot Kenenisa lost his first GL race there). But the women’s competition heated up when Meseret, fresh off a 14:28.53 World record run in New York on 3 June, joined the hunt for 5 GL wins and a share of half of the jackpot. Sparks flew in the close finishes of each race, and Tirunesh prevailed in Paris, Rome and Brussels and won in Zurich in Meseret’s absence, remaining undefeated in 5 GL outings and guaranteeing a share of the jackpot.

But at the African Championships in Mauritius, Tirunesh, recovering from illness, lost badly to Meseret over 5000m. And then, at the final GL meet in Berlin on 3 September, where Tirunesh was one of four athletes poised to take a share of the larger jackpot by pulling off a 6th win,  Meseret’s last lap chase paid off, depriving Tirunesh of an additional $125,000 a win could have netted her. 

The pair battled again down the homestretch at the World Athletics Final, Tirunesh getting her revenge over 5000m in a photo finish and Meseret prevailing in the 3000. Both women topped the podium at the Athens World Cup, with Defar taking the 5000m crown while the “baby-faced destroyer,” as Tirunesh has come to be described, won the 3000m.

In 2007, Tirunesh smashed her own world indoor 5000m record in Boston on 27 January, slicing 5 and a half seconds off to clock 14:27.42, and focused on the defense of her 8K title at the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, where she was heavily favoured. But she (along with almost the entire Ethiopian team) was defeated by the coastal city’s heat and humidity. The Netherlands’ Lornah Kiplagat took an early lead and Tirunesh could only manage silver, holding off the in-form Meselech. Tirunesh’s younger sister Genzebe placed 5th in the junior race, the 2nd highest Ethiopian in the team.

Tirunesh raced sparingly that summer, running only two 5000m races, which she won, in New York in 14:35.67 and the Paris GL in 15:21.84. She planned to defend her Helsinki 5000 and 10,000 crowns in Osaka, and her team hoped she would also lead another Ethiopian sweep in the 5000. But she was hampered in the 10,000 by a tumble mid-race and abdominal pains throughout that left her periodically clutching her stomach. She overcame both to win (in 31:55.41), but only through a heroic effort that she attributed to the desire to bring the gold back to Ethiopia. She withdrew from the 5000 (which Meseret won), and the pain continued to dog her afterwards, cutting short her 2007 season.

She ran just one race indoors in 2008, the Boston 3000m she won in a personal best 8:33.37. Tirunesh then focused on regaining the title she lost in Mombasa at the Edinburgh World Cross Country Championships. Just as the tone of the day in Mombasa had been set by the disastrous outing of the junior women, including Genzebe, the theme of the Edinburgh championships was indicated by Ethiopia’s gold in that race, won by Genzebe herself in a sprint. Inspired by her sister, Tirunesh clawed her way back to the lead group of the senior race after falling behind midway due to a recurrence of abdominal pain. In the last 400m, she reined in Kenya’s Linet Masai, Edinburgh cross country meet winner Gelete Burka and eventual silver-medallist Mestawet Tufa to join her cousin Derartu, American Lynn Jennings and Norwegian Grete Waitz in the ranks of women who have won cross country gold at least three times. Ethiopia went on to sweep all four individual titles in Edinburgh.

Tirunesh, who is informally engaged to Olympic silver medalist Sileshi Sihine, is still shy but less so than when greatness was first thrust upon her, and she embraces the expectations placed upon her. She lived up to Ethiopia’s anticipation of a medal sweep in the African Championships 10,000m in Addis Ababa in May following sweeps of the podium in the men’s 10,000 and top two places in the women’s 5000, and she led her sister and Wude Ayalew across the line.

Greater things were to come in the season, however, and she slashed Meseret’s 14:16.63 world 5000m record to 14:11.15 in Oslo on June 6. Tirunesh ran 31:03.37 for 10,000 in Ostrava and in Beijing is entered in both events, where she will likely seek to repeat the double she completed at the Worlds in 2005. She has few challengers over the longer distance – although her sister and others were surprised by China’s Xing Huina who took Olympic gold in Athens, relegating Ejegayehu to silver. Should she contest it and recover from the 10,000 final and 5000 heats, Tirunesh poses a vicious threat to Meseret in the 5000 as well.

Personal Bests
Indoor
3000m: 8:33.37i (2008)
5000m: 14:27.42i (2007) (WR)

Outdoor
3000m: 8:29.55 (2006)
5000m: 14:11.15 (2008) (WR)

Yearly Progression

3000/ 5000:  2002 - 8:41.86/ 14:49.90; 2003 – 8:50.20/ 14:39.94; 2004 – 8:33.56i (WJR)/ 14:53.99i 14:30.88 (WJR); 2005 – /14:32.93i, 14:32.42; 2006 – 8:41.22i 8:29.55/14:35.46i 14:30.40; 2007 – 8:46.58/ 14:27.42i (WR); 2008 – 8:33.37i/14:11.15.

Career Highlights

2008 1st African Championships, 10,000m
2008 1st World Cross Country Championships, 8K
2007   2nd  World Cross Country Championships, 8K
2007 1st World Championships, 10,000m
2006   1st World Cup, 3000m
2006 1st World Athletics Final, 5000m
2006 2nd  World Athletics Final, 3000m
2006 2nd African Championships, 5000m
2006 1st World Cross Country Championships, 8K
2005 1st World Championships, 5000m
2005 1st World Championships, 10,000m
2005 1st World Cross Country Championships, 4K
2005 1st World Cross Country Championships, 8K
2005 2nd World Athletics Final, 5000m
2004 3rd Olympic Games, 5000m
2004 2nd World Cross Country Championships, 4K
2003 2nd Afro-Asian Games, 5000m
2003 4th All-Africa Games, 5000m
2003 1st World Championships, 5000m
2003 1st World Cross Country Championships, junior
2002 2nd World Junior Championships, 5000m
2002 2nd World Cross Country Championships, junior

Note on Ethiopian names: Ethiopians are customarily referred to by first name only or first and second name together, the second name being the father's first name. (The grandfather’s first name is sometimes added as a third name, and is optional in much the same way that a Western middle name is frequently omitted.)

Prepared by Sabrina Yohannes, John Manners, and Elshadai Negash for the IAAF "Focus on Athletes" project. Copyright IAAF 2008.