Title: Kenenisa Bekele | Biography, Olympic Medals, Marathons, & Facts | Britannica
Headings: Kenenisa Bekele
Kenenisa Bekele
Ethiopian athlete
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Kenenisa Bekele

Content: In 1999 Bekele placed ninth in the junior race at the world cross-country championships and took the silver medal in the 3,000 metres at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) world youth championships. Illness kept him off the Ethiopian squad for the 2000 IAAF world cross-country championships, but at that year’s world junior championships he won the silver medal in the 5,000 metres. At the 2001 world cross-country championships he placed second in the senior short-course event and raced to a 33-second victory margin in the junior race. Bekele won the senior long-course (12-km [7.5-mile]) and short-course (4-km [2.5-mile]) titles at the 2002 world cross-country championships—a feat never before accomplished by a male runner. An Achilles tendon injury cut short Bekele’s 2002 track season, but in March 2003 he was healthy and competed in the world cross-country championships, where he repeated his astonishing double victory. He would go on to win both races at the world cross-country championships in 2004, 2005, and 2006, setting a record for most career wins in the history of the championships. On June 1, 2003, Bekele finally showed what he could do on a track, defeating world record-holder Gebrselassie in the 10,000 metres at the IAAF Grand Prix in Hengelo, Netherlands. Later that year he won gold medals at both the IAAF world championships (in the 10,000 metres) and at the IAAF World Athletics Final (in the 3,000 metres). Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now
Bekele made his Olympic debut in 2004 at the Athens Games, where he won the silver medal in the 5,000 metres and the gold in the 10,000 metres.