Derartu Tulu

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Medal record
Derartu Tulu
Derartu Tulu
Women's Athletics
Competitor for Flag of Ethiopia Ethiopia
Olympic Games
Gold 1992 Barcelona 10.000 m
Gold 2000 Sydney 10.000 m
Bronze 2004 Athens 10.000 m
World Championships
Gold 2001 Edmonton 10.000 m
Silver 1995 Gothenburg 10.000 m

Derartu Tulu (born March 21, 1972 in Bekoji, Arsi Province, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian long distance track, road and marathon athlete.

Derartu (ዻራርቱ ቱሉ) was born in the same village (Bekoji in Arsi Province) as Kenenisa Bekele, the male running sensation.

Her cousins Ejegayehu Dibaba, Tirunesh Dibaba and Genzebe Dibaba are all successful international long-distance runners.

In 2004, she declined to enter the New York Marathon, where she would have been likely to face marathon World Record holder Paula Radcliffe, whom she has had a great rivalry with over the years, and focused instead on the Olympic Games, where she won the bronze medal.

Tulu is the first Ethiopian woman to win a medal in the Olympic Games. She is also the first woman from sub-Saharan Africa to win an Olympic gold medal. Her 1992 Olympic gold medal launched her career. She sat out 1993 and 1994 with a knee injury and returned to competition in the 1995 IAAF World Cross Country Championships where she won gold, having arrived at the race only an hour before the start. She was stuck in Athens airport without sleep for 24 hours. The same year she lost out to Fernanda Ribeiro and won silver at the World Championships 10,000.

1996 was a difficult year. At the IAAF World Cross Country Championships she lost her shoe in the race and had to fight back to get 4th place. She also finished 4th at the Olympic Games where she was nursing an injury. In 1997 she won the world cross country title for a third time but did not factor in the 10,000 meter World Championships. 1998 and 1999 she gave birth, but came back in 2000 in the best shape of her life. She won the 10,000 meter Olympic gold for the second time (the only woman to have done this in the short history of the event). She had also won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships title for the third time that year. In 2001 she finally won her world 10,000 track title in Edmonton. This was her third world and Olympic gold medal. She has a total of 6 world and Olympic gold medals.

Her transition to the marathon has been rewarded with a personal best time of 2:23 and to victories in London 2002 and at the competitive Tokyo Marathon. At the age of 33 she finished 4th at the 2004 World Championships setting her personal best.

Sixteen years into her running career Derartu Tulu is still running competitively, while some of her rivals are retiring. She is an icon of the Olympic movement and many will recall her victory lap in 1992 with white South African Elana Meyer, symbolically celebrating an African victory and the end of apartheid on the track. She will also be remembered for her speed. Her 60.3 second-last lap at the end of the 10,000 meters at the Sydney Olympics was a sprint of note. A devastating display of speed on top of endurance and a display of her will power.

[edit] Achievements

[edit] References

v • d • e
Olympic Champions in Women's 10000 metres
1988: Olga Bondarenko • 1992: Derartu Tulu • 1996: Fernanda Ribeiro • 2000: Derartu Tulu • 2004: Xing Huina


Sporting positions
Preceded by
Flag of Kenya Hellen Chepngeno		 IAAF Women's World Cross Country Champion
1995		 Succeeded by
Flag of Ethiopia Gete Wami
Preceded by
Flag of Ethiopia Gete Wami		 IAAF Women's World Cross Country Champion
1997		 Succeeded by
Flag of Ireland Sonia O'Sullivan
Preceded by
Flag of Ethiopia Gete Wami		 IAAF Women's World Cross Country Champion
2000		 Succeeded by
Flag of the United Kingdom Paula Radcliffe
Preceded by
Flag of Kenya Joyce Chepchumba		 Tokyo Women's Marathon Winner
2001		 Succeeded by
Flag of Tanzania Banuelia Mrashani
Preceded by
Flag of Kenya Tegla Laroupe		 London Women's Marathon Winner
2001		 Succeeded by
Flag of the United Kingdom Paula Radcliffe