Meseret Defar Tola (Amharic: መሠረት ደፋር; born 19 November 1983) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes chiefly in the 3000 metres and 5000 metres events. She has won medals at top-tier international competitions including Olympic and World Championship gold medals over 5000 metres. She broke the world record in the event in 2006, broke it again in 2007 and held it until 2008, when fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba beat her time. In 2007 on a track in Brussels Belgium, she became the only woman, with a 2-mile run in less than 9 minutes (8:58.58). This was an improvement on the world record by 11 seconds. Defar has been successful in the 5000 m at the Olympic Games, taking gold at the 2012 London Olympics, 2004 Athens Olympics and bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She has experienced similar success in the World Championships, taking silver in 2005 Helsinki Championships and gold at the 2007 Osaka Championships. Defar held the indoor records for the 5000 metres, 3000 metres and two-mile run. She has dominated the 3000 m indoor event, winning four consecutive gold medals at the IAAF World Indoor Championships from 2004 to 2010. She is also a two-time champion at the All-Africa Games, a four-time medalist at the African Championships and a two-time gold medalist at the World Junior Championships. Defar took a break from competition in 2014 in order to start a family. She vowed to return by 2015 although she did not compete in the August World Championships in Beijing. Career Olympics Defar won the 5000 metres gold medal at the inaugural Afro-Asian Games in 2003. She won gold medals in the women's 5000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens with a time of 14:45.65 and 5000 metres at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. She also won bronze medal at 2008 Beijing Olympics, which turned in a silver medal after the disqualification of Turkish athlete Elvan Abeylegesse. World Records On 3 June 2006 she ran the 5000 metres in New York City in a then-world record time of 14:24.53 – she subsequently improved the record to 14:16.63 at the Bislett Games in Oslo on 15 June 2007. On 3 February 2007 she ran the 3000 metres indoor in Stuttgart (Germany) in a world record time of 8:23.72. On 20 May 2007 she ran the 2 mile in Carson, California in a world best time