Dibaba, Tirunesh

Tirunesh Dibaba, (born June 1, 1985, near Bekoji, Arsi province, Ethiopia), Ethiopian distance runner who at the 2008 Beijing Olympics became the first woman to win gold in both the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre races. She defended her gold medal title in the 10,000 metres at the 2012 London Olympics, becoming the first woman to win the event at two consecutive Olympics.

Dibaba was inspired by a family of runners. Derartu Tulu, a cousin, had won two Olympic gold medals in the 10,000 metres (in Barcelona in 1992 and in Sydney in 2000). It seemed obvious that when Dibaba’s sister Ejegayehu, three years her senior, took up competitive running in 1998, she would soon follow. Dibaba moved to Addis Ababa in 2000 to live with Ejegayehu and another cousin, who was also a runner. She had planned to enroll in school but instead joined the Corrections (Prisons Police) sports club. Dibaba debuted internationally at age 15 on Ethiopia’s junior squad at the 2001 world cross-country championships, placing fifth. She followed with junior-level silver medals in cross-country and on the track in 2002.

In 2003 Dibaba won the world junior cross-country title, set a 5,000-metre junior world record (14 min 39.94 sec), and secured the gold in the 5,000 metres at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world track and field championships, becoming the youngest-ever world champion in her sport. Although she lowered her world junior 5,000-metre record to 14 min 30.88 sec in 2004, Dibaba took the bronze in the Athens Olympics that year.

After setting a world indoor record in the 5,000-metres (14 min 32.93 sec), she won both the long- and short-course world cross-country titles. At the track and field world championships, she became the first woman to win a distance double, leading Ethiopian medal sweeps in the 10,000 metres and the 5,000 metres, running sub-59-second last laps in both races.

She won world cross-country titles in 2006 and 2008 and broke the 5,000-metre world indoor record (14 min 27.42 sec) in 2007, but in the latter year she had to summon a furious finish to defend her 10,000-metre world title after she fell during the race. In October 2008 Dibaba married two-time men’s 10,000-metre Olympic silver medalist Sileshi Sihine. Injuries curtailed her activities during 2009–11. Several months after her triumphant return to the medals podium at the 2012 London Olympics—in addition to her gold in the 10,000 metres, she won a bronze in the 5,000 metres—she made her half marathon debut in the United Kingdom. Dibaba won another gold medal in the 10,000-metre race at the 2013 world championships, and in 2014 she competed in her first marathon. At the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, she captured a bronze medal in the 10,000-metre race. The following year she won her first marathon, in Chicago.