Bio

Kenenisa Bekele Beyecha (Oromo: Qananiisaisaa baqqalaa; Amharic: ቀነኒሳ በቀለ; born 13 June 1982) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner. He was a world record holder at 5,000 metres and 10,000 metres from 2004 to 2020. He won the gold medal in the 5,000m and 10,000m events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2004 Olympic Games, he won the gold medal in the 10,000m and the silver medal in the 5,000m.

He is the most decorated runner in the history of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, with six titles in long races (12km) and five in short races (4km). He won the 10,000m title at the 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 World Athletics Championships (equalling Haile Gebrselassie’s streak of four consecutive victories). Kenenisa was unbeaten in the 10,000m from his debut in 2003 until 2011, when he failed to reach the final of the World Championships.

At the 2009 World Athletics Championships he became the first man to win the 5,000m and 10,000m titles at the same championships. At 5,000m he has also won an Olympic silver (2004), a World Championship bronze (2003), two African Champion titles and a gold medal at the Pan-African Games. He also won the 3,000m title at the 2006 World Indoor Championships.

On 6 April 2014, with his victory in the Paris Marathon, he achieved the sixth fastest marathon debut in history on a record-breaking course with a record time of 2:05:04. On 25 September 2016, Kenenisa won the Berlin Marathon in a time of 2:03:03, a new personal best, then the third fastest marathon of all time. On 29 September 2019, he won the Berlin Marathon again with a time of 2:01:41, two seconds slower than the then world record of 2:01:39, set by Eliud Kipchoge at the 2018 Berlin Marathon. Considering his achievements in cross country, track and road, many consider him the greatest long-distance runner of all time.

Early life

Kenenisa Bekele was born in 1982 in Bekoji, in the Arsi area of Ethiopia, the same town as other prominent long-distance runners such as the Dibaba sisters (Ejegayehu, Tirunesh and Genzebe) and his cousin Derartu Tulu. Kenenisa was born as the second child of parents who made their living as barley farmers, along with three brothers and two sisters. The family practised Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity.

Kenenisa originally aspired to a career in medicine, education or the civil service, but, encouraged by a primary school physical education teacher and combined with football, he began training seriously for running, drawing inspiration from the successes of Derartu Tulu and Haile Gebrselassie. He ran barefoot until he came sixth overall and first in the 1999 Jan Meda Cross Country regional competition in Addis Ababa, representing the Oromia region. His performance made headlines, and his parents heard about his running from his neighbours. Already at that time, many clubs were interested in him. At first he doubted his ability to become a professional athlete, and thought his teacher’s advice was little more than a joke. However, after participating in school races and realising that he was competitive with those who trained much harder than him, he began to believe in his potential. This motivated him to start training consistently and to work on improving his performance.

VIVID CHILDHOOD MEMORIES
When he was 14, his mother accompanied him on business trips until he became familiar with the work and started going alone. He bought chickens and eggs in rural areas and sold them in Bekoji. He vividly recalls how he narrowly escaped a flood on his way back from a rural village. ‘When I was trying to jump over a river carrying a chicken, one of my feet slipped. I threw the chickens in front of me, but fell into the water. Fortunately, someone nearby helped me grab hold of the grass on the bank, preventing me from being swept away.’ (Athlete, 13 June 2024).

PERSONAL TRAGEDY
In January 2005, his fiancée Alem Techale, a former world junior champion, collapsed and died while on a training run together in Addis Ababa.

BUSINESSMAN
In 2012 he built a six-lane all-weather athletics track in Sululta and also owns several hotels, in Addis Ababa, Assela and Sululta. He has also recently built a school in Sululta.

Kenenisa won his first medals in international competition when he came second in the 3,000 metres at the 1999 World Youth Championships and in the 5,000 metres at the 2000 World Junior Championships. He won his first gold medal in the junior race at the 2001 World Cross Country Championships. His success in athletics enabled him to buy a house and help finance his siblings’ education.

2001 – 2003: Early years

In August 2001, Kenenisa set the world junior 3000m world record by running 7:30.67 in Brussels. The record lasted three and a half years, being broken by Augustine Choge (7:28.78). In December 2000 and 2001, Bekele won the 15km Montferland Run road race in the Netherlands. For five years in a row, from 2002 (at the age of 19) to 2006, he won both the short (4km) and long (12km) races at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, a feat no other runner has ever achieved once. After the IAAF eliminated the short race in 2007, Kenenisa won one last long race in 2008, bringing his world cross-country medal tally to 11 individual senior gold medals (6 long and 5 short), 1 senior silver medal (2001), 1 junior gold medal (2001), 2 team gold medals (2004, 2005), 3 team silver medals (2002, 2003 and 2008) and 1 team bronze medal (2006), for a total of 19 medals.

Kenenisa became famous for his ability to finish at very fast paces; in Oslo in June 2003, he chased down Kenya’s Abraham Chebii and won the race in 12:52.26. He has faced his Ethiopian compatriot, Haile Gebrselassie, twice in road competition, once in cross-country and six times on the track. Haile defeated Kenenisa on the track in the Nuremberg 5,000m in 2000, the 2001 Great Ethiopian Run 10km and the Cross de L’Acier in December 2001, but lost to Kenenisa in the 2003 Hengelo 10,000m (26:53.70 to 26:54.58), Rome 2003 5,000m (second with 12:57.34, and Haile third, with 13:00.32), 10. 000m at the 2003 Paris World Championships (gold for Kenenisa, with 26:49.57, silver for Haile, with 26:50.77), in the 10,000m at the 2004 Athens Olympics (gold in 27:05.10, fifth with 27:27.70), in the 10,000m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (gold with 27:01.17, sixth with 27:06.68) and in the September 2013 Great North Run half marathon (60:09 to 60:41).

2004 season

In 2004, Bekele broke the world records for 5,000m indoor, 5,000m outdoor and 10,000m outdoor (both within 9 days). He won the world cross-country, sprint and long-distance titles, and led Ethiopia to the men’s senior team title. He also won gold in the 10,000m and silver in the 5,000m at the Athens Olympics.

2005 season

On 4 January 2005, Kenenisa’s fiancée, 18-year-old Alem Techale, died of an apparent heart attack while running with him in Addis Ababa. Although it was initially claimed that an autopsy had not been performed, Alem and Kenenisa’s manager, Jos Hermens, later stated that the autopsy had revealed nothing conclusive about Techale’s death. She was a world youth 1500m champion in 2003, and was in excellent physical condition.

Bekele resumed competition on 29 January, losing in the Boston Indoor 3000m to Ireland’s Alistair Cragg after sprinting with one and a half laps to go, thinking there was only half a lap to go. A few weeks later he lost to compatriot Markos Geneti in the Birmingham indoor 2 mile.

In March, Kenenisa lined up to defend his titles on both the long and short courses at the World Cross Country Championships. He won the short race despite the fast pace set by Qatar’s Saif Saaeed Shaheen, and the following day he beat Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese and Kenyan rival Eliud Kipchoge in the long race.

On 8 August 2005, Kenenisa Bekele won the gold medal in the 10,000m at the Helsinki World Championships with a sprint in the last 200 metres. On 26 August, Kenenisa set the 10,000m world record at the 29th Van Damme Memorial in Brussels with a stratospheric 26:17.53, shaving almost three seconds off his previous world record of 26:20.31, and with 5,000m splits of 13:09 and 13:08. In the race, six runners finished under 27 minutes, with Sammy Wanjiru in 26:41.75, a new junior world record. At the end of 2005, Kenenisa was named Track & Field News athlete of the year for the second consecutive year.

2006 and 2007

When Kenenisa won the 3,000m at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Moscow, he became the first athlete in history to be Olympic champion, world outdoor track champion, world indoor champion and world cross-country champion. In 2006, he won five of the six IAAF Golden League events (5,000m) in the same season, earning him a total of $83,333.

On 17 February 2007, he broke the world indoor 2,000m record in Birmingham, with a time of 4:49.99. His spectacular final three hundred metres contributed to this record, which would be considered excellent even outdoors. On 24 March 2007, however, his streak of 27 consecutive cross-country race wins (dating back to his last previous defeat in December 2001) came to an end when, after leading the race on the penultimate lap of the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, he succumbed to the extreme conditions of the race, succumbed to the extreme heat and humidity (which caused more than 1/6 of all competitors to drop out) and was overtaken by the eventual winner, Eritrea’s Zersenay Tadese, on the last lap before Kenenisa dropped out. This was greeted with cheers from the Kenyan crowd, something that has not gone down well with the wider athletics community.

He recovered from that bizarre failure to win the 10,000m at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, again beating compatriot Sileshi Sihine. During the race, he looked set to fall behind several times in the final 800m, but recovered to overtake Sileshi with 150m to go and claim his third consecutive world title.

2008: Beijing Olympic Games

In Edinburgh, on 30 March 2008, he won his sixth world cross-country title (long race, 12 km), breaking the three-way tie of five victories he had previously shared with Paul Tergat and John Ngugi. With this victory, Kenenisa became the most decorated athlete in the history of the World Cross Country Championships. He has won 6 individual gold medals in long races (12 kms), 5 gold medals in short races (4 kms), 1 junior championship (8 kms) and 4 team gold medals, for a total of 16 gold medals. Their total medal tally (individual and team results) amounts to 27 medals: 16 gold, 9 silver and 2 bronze.

On 17 August 2008, Kenenisa won the gold medal in the 10,000m final at the Beijing Olympics with a time of 27:01.17, setting a new Olympic record. In a race in which 20 men broke the 28-minute barrier and four finished under his 2004 Olympic record (27:05.10), Kenenisa needed his famous sprint finish to take victory, with a final time of 53.42 over the final 400m (similar to the final sprint of 53.02 seconds over 400m with which he won the gold medal at Athens 2004 over the same distance).

On August 23, 2008, Kenenisa outlasted his competitors to win the 5,000m final, smashing Saïd Aouita’s Olympic record by almost eight seconds with a time of 12:57.82. The race was notable for his ability to set the pace himself before accelerating to a lightning-fast finish: his final 3,000 meters took him just 7:35.53, his last 2,000 meters 4:56.97, his last 1,600 meters 3:57.01 (=3:58.4 final mile), and his final lap a punishing 53.87. By winning the 10,000/5,000 metres double at the Beijing Olympic Games, Kenenisa joined another group of elite athletes who had previously achieved this feat: Hannes Kolehmainen (1912), Emil Zátopek (1952), Vladimir Kuts (1956), Lasse Virén (twice, in 1972 and 1976) and Miruts Yifter (1980).

2009: Berlin World Championships

Kenenisa Bekele won two gold medals at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. His double victories in the 5,000 meters (13:17.09) and 10,000 meters (26:46.31, World Championship record) were unprecedented, and he became the first man to win both long-distance track gold medals at the same World Championships. His gifted combination of endurance and speed made Kenenisa almost impossible to beat at his peak. During the 10,000m race, in which he was running behind Eritrean Zersenay Tadesse, the announcer declared, “It’s over, in fact it was over from the start” as the final lap began and Kenenisa turned a seemingly close race into a resounding victory. The IAAF announcer concluded, “This man is probably the greatest distance runner we will ever see”.

Despite his unparalleled success in athletics, Kenenisa Bekele did not enjoy the popularity enjoyed by others like Haile Gebrselassie. His quiet demeanor and aversion to interviews did not make him a very marketable athlete in the West. His teammate, world record holder Usain Bolt, stated that Kenenisa Bekele’s achievements had not received the recognition they deserved.

2010: Injuries

Kenenisa had a disappointing start to 2010, finishing fourth in the Edinburgh cross country race, a race he was favored to win. A trio of Kenyan athletes eliminated him from the competition on the final lap. He spent the entire indoor and outdoor season sidelined with a torn hamstring.

World Championships in 2011 and Olympic Games in 2012

Kenenisa Bekele finally returned to training after a knee injury in March 2011. After not racing on the track since 2009, Kenenisa returned for the World Championships. He dropped out of the 10,000m with 10 laps remaining. Kenenisa decided not to race the 5,000m and returned to the Diamond League at the Ivo Van Damme Memorial in Brussels, where he set the year’s world best time in the 2011 10,000m.

Kenenisa’s 2012 season didn’t get off to a good start, with a lowly eleventh place finish at the Edinburgh Cross Country. In April, she appeared to have regained her form, winning the Great Ireland Run with a new personal best for the 10km road race (27:49), improving the course record by 46 seconds.

In the 10,000m at the London 2012 Olympic Games, he ran in the lead group throughout the race, but was unable to keep up with Mo Farah’s sprint in the final 150 metres and eventually finished fourth in 27:32.44, just 1.01 seconds behind his bronze medallist brother, Tariku.

In his first race of 2013, he won the Great Ireland Run for the second time. Kenenisa then won the Great North Run Half Marathon in 60:09, beating Mo Farah by just one second after a change of pace in the final kilometer that Farah couldn’t counter.

Marathon career: 2014-2015

Kenenisa Bekele began his marathon career at the Paris Marathon on April 6, 2014. His marathon debut was highly successful, as he beat both the Paris course record and the debut marathon times of past legends Haile Gebrselassie, Paul Tergat, and Samuel Wanjiru to win in 2:05:04. Kenenisa then competed in the Chicago Marathon on October 12 of the same year. He finished fourth in 2:05:51, one minute and forty seconds behind Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge. On January 23, 2015, Bekele challenged himself for the Dubai Marathon, where he was forced to withdraw from the race after 30 km. He was originally scheduled to compete in the London Marathon in April, but was ultimately unable to attend due to a persistent Achilles tendon injury in his right leg.

After eleven months out injured, Bekele returned to racing at the 2016 London Marathon. Before the race, he stated that he was only at 90% of his fitness. Kenenisa finished third, behind winner Eliud Kipchoge and second-place finisher Stanley Biwott, with a time of 2:06:36. This performance came despite the fact that he only returned to racing early in 2016 following injury and had only completed six weeks of marathon-specific training. He was also hampered in the race by losing his drinks at five different stations, which were being used by designated pacers.

2016-2017

On 24 April 2016, he finished third in the London Marathon with a time of 2:06:38. In September, he won the Berlin Marathon with a time of 2:03:03, a new personal best for the distance and the second-fastest marathon of all time. On 19 January 2017, while attempting to break the world record, Kenenisa retired from the Dubai Marathon after the halfway point due to an early fall. On 23 April, Kenenisa finished second in the London Marathon with a time of 2:05:57, 9 seconds behind winner Daniel Wanjiru.

Kenenisa’s outstanding track career led him to participate in a project to break the two-hour barrier in the marathon, although a number of factors undermined this effort.

2018-2019

Kenenisa ran the 2018 London Marathon in April, finishing sixth with a time of 2:08:53. He also ran the Amsterdam Marathon in October, but withdrew due to injury with about two kilometers remaining. In 2019, Bekele won the Berlin Marathon in September, with a time of 2:01:41, the second-fastest in history at the time, and just two seconds off the world record set by Eliud Kipchoge on the same course the previous year. After the race, he stated that he still believed he could break the world record.

2020-2021

Kenenisa won the London Half Marathon on 1 March 2020 in 60:22. He improved the course record, set by Mo Farah in 2019, by one minute and eighteen seconds. Chris Thompson came second in 61:07, also below the previous record. Bekele returned to the Berlin Marathon in September 2021, finishing third in 2:06:47. The race was won by compatriot Guye Adola in 2:05:45, while Kenyan Bethwel Yegon finished second. In November, he finished sixth in the New York City Marathon with a time of 2:12:52.

2022-2023

In September, he placed third in the Great North Run Half Marathon with a time of 1:01:01. The following month, Kenenisa competed in the London Marathon, where he placed fifth with a time of 2:05:53, setting a Masters M40 world record. In April, he entered the London Marathon but withdrew from the race after the 25-kilometer mark. Then, in October, he announced on Instagram that he had left the NN Running team and switched his sponsorship from Nike to Anta, a Chinese sports brand. In December, Kenenisa competed in the Valencia Marathon. Although he fell behind the leading group before the 15-kilometer split, he managed to finish fourth in a Masters M40 world record with a time of 2:04:19. This achievement cements him as the first athlete over the age of 40 to complete a marathon in under 2:05.

2024

Kenenisa, 41, competed in the London Marathon on 21 April 2024, where he finished second to Alexander Mutiso Munyao, beating his own Masters record by 4 seconds with a time of 2:04:15.

Personal life

On 18 November 2007, Kenenisa married Ethiopian film actress Danawit Gebregziabher in Addis Ababa, with whom he has two daughters, Elnata and Elsama, and a son, Wgus. Kenenisa is the second of six children (he has two sisters and three brothers), and two of his younger brothers are also long-distance runners: Tariku, a two-time Olympian, winning bronze in the 10,000m at London 2012 and World Indoor 3,000m Champion at Valencia 2008; and Tamrat, whose biggest achievement in his short career was running 2:11:11 at the 2011 Hannover Marathon. He owns a hotel in the Bole area of ​​Addis Ababa, the Kenenisa Hotel, and in 2012 built a six-lane running track in Suluta, about a 25-minute drive from the capital, as well as a school in the same township.

Ambition

“At my age it’s still possible to run a faster time. If I don’t get injuries and train well then it’s possible to run 2:01 again at some point in my career. My energy is good and I’m feeling strong in training“.

(Athletics Weekly YouTube, April 19, 2024).

Coach

Getamesay Molla (ETH).

Injuries

2010: Calf muscle tear. Missed both indoor and outdoor seasons.
March 2011: Struggled with a knee injury.
April 2015: An injury to his right Achilles tendon caused him to miss the London Marathon and kept him out for the entire year.
October 2018: Diagnosed with a stress fracture in his femur after withdrawing from the Amsterdam Marathon with 2 km remaining.

Social Media

Facebook: facebook.com/kbelele
Instagram: instagram.com/kenenisabekele_42
X (Twitter): x.com/kenenisabekele

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Sources: Wikipedia | Olympics.com |