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Medal record
Olympic Games
Men's Athletics
Gold	2004 Athens	10,000 m
Silver	2004 Athens	5,000 m
World Championships
Gold	2003 Paris	10,000 m
Bronze	2003 Paris	5,000 m
Gold	2005 Helsinki	10,000m

Kenenisa Bekele (born June 13, 1982 in Bekoji, a town in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia) is a multiple world record-holding Ethiopian distance runner who took the gold medal in the 10,000 m and the silver in the 5,000 m at the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Additionally, he won the Gold in the 10,000 m at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics at Paris completing an Ethiopian sweep with Haile Gebrselassie(2nd) and Sileshi Sihine(3rd), and also won 10000m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics (with Sileshi Sihine(2nd)). He also won the bronze in the 5,000 m at the 2003 World Championships in Athletics. He is the older brother of Tariku Bekele.

For five years in a row, from 2002 through 2006, he took both short (4K) and long (12K) races at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, a feat no other runner has accomplished even once. In 2004, he broke the world records for the indoor 5,000 m, outdoor 5,000 m and outdoor 10,000 m.

Bekele is renowned for this ability to accelerate very quickly at the end of a long distance race; in Oslo, Norway in June 2003, Bekele chased after Kenyan Abraham Chebii and ran a 54.64 final 400 to win the race in 12:52.26. Again in Lausanne, Switzerland on July 1, 2003, Bekele recorded a 200 m segment during the last lap in 24 seconds and a 100 m section in 11.xx seconds to run a 52.63 final lap.

Bekele has faced his mentor Haile Gebrselassie once in road competition, once in cross country, and five times on the track. Gebrselassie defeated Bekele on the track in the 2000 Nurnberg 5,000 meters, the 2001 Great Ethiopian Run 10km, and the Cross de l'Acier in December of 2001, but lost to Bekele in Hengelo 2003 over 10,000 m (26:53 to 26:54), Rome 2003 over 5000 m (12:57 to 13:00), Paris 2003 over 10,000 m (26:49 to 26:50), and Athens 2004 (27:05 to 27:27).

2004 Athens Olympics: In 2006 August 20, in the 10,000 m at the 2004 Summer Olympics Bekele took the title away from his compatriot Haile Gebrselassie, who achieved a fifth place. At that race, three Ethiopians attempted to duplicate their 2003 World Championships sweep. Since Gebrselassie had been suffering from inflamation on his Achilles tendon for five weeks before he came to Athens, Bekele and Sihine slowed the race down to give him a chance of a medal, putting their own victory in jeopardy. However Gebrselassie was dropped as Bekele and Sihine upped the pace to shake off other leading competetors, Zersenay Tadesse and Boniface Kiprop. Bekele let Sihane lead him out and then hit the front with 500m to go, sprinting away with the last lap in 53.02 seconds as if it were the first lap and not the last, and won the race with a new Olympics record 27:05.10. Sihane finished 2nd(27:09.39). ^[1][2]

8 days after, in 2006 August 28, in the 5,000 m Bekele also took a close silver medal, being kicked down in the last 50 meters by the miler Hicham El Guerrouj.

On January 4, 2005, Bekele's fiancee, 18-year-old Alem Techale, died of an apparent heart attack while on a training run with him. Although it was initially stated that no autopsy was performed, Techale and Bekele's manager, Jos Hermens, later said that an autopsy had revealed nothing conclusive about the young woman's death. She was the 2003 World Youth Champion in the 1500m and in excellent physical condition. The mystery surrounding her death has raised suspicion about the possible use of EPO or other performance-enhancing drugs by Techale and perhaps other athletes in Hermens' care. However, Kenenisa has never been implicated and there is no evidence to suggest that he has ever used performance-enhancing drugs.

Over the next several weeks following Alem's death, Kenenisa grieved. He resumed racing on January 29, and lost over 3,000 m to South-African Irishman Alistair Cragg. A few weeks later he lost to fellow Ethiopian Markos Geneti over 2 miles. In March, Kenenisa faced his toughest challenge yet. Despite his grief and recent losses on the track, he lined up to defend his long and short course titles at the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. In dramatic fashion, Kenenisa bested the field in the short course despite a fast pace set by Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen. He followed that win with a long course victory the next day over Eritrean Zersenay Tadesse and Kenyan rival Eliud Kipchoge. The 2005 World Cross Country double victory is considered by many to be the most amazing of Kenenisa's career to date. And while this victory was just one step toward healing his broken spirit, it is among the greatest emotional and physical triumphs in Athletics history.

Kenenisa Bekele won the gold medal in the 10,000 m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics with a stunning last 200 m spurt before later in the summer taking down his own 10,000 m world record in Brussels, Belgium, running 26:17.53 with 5,000 m halves of 13:09 and 13:08. In 2006 he won five out of six Golden League events (5,000 m) in the same season, which earned him a total of $83,333.

On 17th February 2007, he broke the indoor world record over 2000m in Birmingham, UK, with a time of 4:49.99. His spectacular final 300m aided this time which would be considered excellent outdoors. On March 24, 2007, however, his racing streak of 27 consecutive victories in cross country races (dating back to his last previous loss in December of 2001) came to an end when after leading the race on the last lap of the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, Kenya he was passed by eventual winner Zersenay Tadesse and then dropped out.

Contents 1 Current world records (as of February 2007) 2 Major victories 3 External links 4 References and notes

• 5,000 m indoor world record 12:49.60 (Birmingham, England, on February 20, 2004)
• 5,000 m world record 12:37.35 (Hengelo, Netherlands, on May 31, 2004) from compatriot Haile Gebrselassie at 12:39.36 (on June 13, 1998)
• 10,000 m world record 26:17.53 (Brussels, Belgium, on August 26, 2005, breaking his previous record of 26:20.31 from June 8, 2004, which at the time replaced Gebrselassie's former record at 26:22.75 from June 1, 1998).
• 2,000 m indoor world record 04:49.99 (Birmingham, England, on February 17, 2007)

• 2006 African Championships in Athletics 5,000 m, Bambous (Mauritius)
• 2006 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Fukuoka (Japan)
• 2006 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Fukuoka (Japan)
• 2006 World Indoor Track Champion 3,000 m, Moscow (Russia)
• 2005 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), St. Etienne (France)
• 2005 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), St. Etienne (France)
• 2005 World Track Champion 10,000 m, Helsinki (Finland)
• 2004 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Brussels (Belgium)
• 2004 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Brussels (Belgium)
• 2004 Olympic Champion 10,000 m, Athens (Greece)
• 2003 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4K), Avenches (Switzerland)
• 2003 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12K), Avenches (Switzerland)
• 2003 World Track Champion 10,000 m, Paris (France)
• 2002 World Cross Country Champion in short race (4 Kilometers), Dublin (Ireland)
• 2002 World Cross Country Champion in long race (12 Kilometers), Dublin (Ireland)
• 2001 World Junior Cross Country Champion 8000 m

• IAAF profile for Kenenisa Bekele
• IAAF: Focus on Athletes
• This page has all the stats on Bekele.

Olympic champions in men's 5 miles and 10000 m
As five miles: 1906: Henry Hawtrey | 1908: Emil Voigt
As 10000 metres: 1912: Hannes Kolehmainen | 1920: Paavo Nurmi | 1924: Ville Ritola | 1928: Paavo Nurmi | 1932: Janusz Kusociński | 1936: Ilmari Salminen | 1948:  Emil Zátopek | 1952:  Emil Zátopek | 1956: Vladimir Kuts | 1960: Pyotr Bolotnikov | 1964: Billy Mills | 1968: Naftali Temu | 1972: Lasse Virén | 1976: Lasse Virén |1980: Miruts Yifter | 1984: Alberto Cova | 1988: Brahim Boutayeb | 1992: Khalid Skah | 1996: Haile Gebrselassie | 2000: Haile Gebrselassie | 2004: Kenenisa Bekele