Genzebe Dibaba

Dibaba at the 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot.
Personal information
Nationality	Ethiopian
Born	8 February 1991 (age 24)[1] Bekoji, Ethiopia[1]
Height	168 cm (5 ft 6 in)[1]
Weight	52 kg (115 lb)[1]
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	1500m, 3000m, 5000m
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	1500m: 3:54.11 AR[2] Indoor 1500m: 3:55.17iWR[3] 3000m: 8:26.21[3] Indoor 3000m: 8:16.60iWR[3] Indoor 2-mile: 9:00.48i WR[3] 5000m: 14:15.41[3] Indoor 5000m: 14:18.86iWR[3]
Medal record[hide] Representing  Ethiopia Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games – – – World Championships – – – World Indoor Championships 2 0 0 World Cross Country Championships 2 0 0 African Championships – – – World Junior Championships 1 1 0 Total 5 1 0 World Indoor Championships 2012 Istanbul 1500 m 2014 Sopot 3000 m World Junior Championships 2010 Moncton 5000 2008 Bydgoszcz 5000 World Cross Country Championships 2008 Edinburgh Junior race 2009 Amman Junior race Competitor for Africa Continental Cup 2014 Marrakech 3000

Genzebe Dibaba Keneni (Amharic: ገንዘቤ ዲባባ;^[1] Afaan Oromo: Ganzabee Dibaabaa; born 8 February 1991) is an Ethiopian middle- and long-distance runner. She is the sister of three-times Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba and Olympic silver medallist Ejegayehu Dibaba, and the cousin of former Olympic champion Derartu Tulu.^[4]

She was the 2012 World Indoor Champion for the 1500 m and holds the World record for the distance, and is the reigning 2014 World Indoor Champion and World Indoor Record Holder in the 3000m. She represented Ethiopia at the 2012 Summer Olympics and has twice competed at the World Championships in Athletics (2009 and 2011). She was highly successful as a junior (under-20) athlete, having won two junior world cross country titles and one world junior 5000 m gold medal.

Career[edit]

Genzebe won the junior women’s title at both the 2008^[5] and 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships^[6] and finished fifth in the same event in 2007. Genzebe became the second junior woman ever to win two junior cross country championships in a row. She also competed in IAAF Golden League meetings, including the Reebok Grand Prix and the Oslo Bislett Games. At the 2008 Bislett Games she recorded a personal best time of 15:02.41 in the 5000 metres, during the same race where her sister Tirunesh set a new world record.^[7] She did the same a year later in the same race, improving her personal best by more than five seconds.

2009–2010[edit]

After winning the 5000 m at the Ethiopian Athletics Championships, she was included in the Ethiopian squad for the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships. In Berlin she replaced Tirunesh on Ethiopia’s 5000 m team, who withdrew due to injury. Genzebe ran an excellent heat, finishing fourth and qualifying for the final where, in her first major senior championship race, she finished in eighth position. She also won the 5000 m gold at the 2009 African Junior Athletics Championships.

She began her 2009–10 cross country campaign with a win at the Cross de Atapuerca.^[8] She also competed indoors, improving her 1500 m best to 4:04.80 at the Indoor Flanders meeting.^[9] Despite her wins on the senior circuit, she failed to complete a hat-trick of junior race titles at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. She performed far below expectations, ending up in eleventh and barely making it into the silver medal winning Ethiopian team.^[10] Her fortunes improved at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics as she defeated the junior cross country winnerMercy Cherono to take the 5000 m gold in a championship record time.^[11] In November she took a second consecutive victory at the Cross de Atapueca, taking a prominent scalp in Emily Chebet (the reigning senior champion).^[12]

2011–2012[edit]

She was the runner-up at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country in January 2011 behind Linet Masai.^[13] She placed ninth at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships two months later.

Genzebe improved her 5000 m best to 14:37.56 minutes at the Bislett Games and went on to place eighth in the event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. After this point she began to move away from the 5000 m an focus on the1500 metres instead – a move which paid significant dividends for her career. She began 2012 with the fifth fastest ever indoor 1500 m, winning the Weltklasse in Karlsruhe in 4:00.13 minutes.^[14] A win at the Aviva Indoor Grand Prix preceded her first world title at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships.^[15] Turning to the outdoor track, she ran an Ethiopian record time of 3:57.77 minutes at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix.^[16] She was third at the Golden Gala and runner-up at the Bislett Games. She was selected for the 2012 London Olympics, but a hamstring injury in the final lap of her heat saw her eliminated from the competition.^[17]

2013–2014[edit]

Genzebe opened 2013 on grass, winning the 3 km competition at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country,^[18] then took two indoor wins in Karlsruhe and Birmingham.

On February 1, 2014, in Karlsruhe, Germany, Genzebe Dibaba ran 3:55.17 in the 1500m indoor event, beating the previous indoor world record by over 3 seconds. This mark was the fastest 1500m in the world, indoor or outdoor, since 1997.^[19]

Five days later, she improved the world indoor record in the 3000 metres to 8:16.60 at the XL Galan meet in Stockholm, Sweden. In that one race, she improved her own personal record by over thirty seconds, the world record by almost seven, and even though it was set on a shorter track indoors, her time was the number four time at the distance ever. Only on one occasion has the time been bettered, that was the 1993 Chinese National Games, when three athletes Wang Junxia, Qu Yunxia andZhang Linli set the event on its ear, running times that had previously not been approached in two decades.In the month of February and in just 15 days Genzebe was able to break her third world record at indoor two-mile record at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix nine minutes and 0.48 seconds was her new record that shattered Meseret Defar previous record by six seconds.^[20]

With these records Genzebe is now one of only three athletes in history to break three world records in three different events within 15 days, joining Jesse Owens andUsain Bolt. She stands alone as the only one to do this feat in three different cities and meets, and in all individual events under FAT.^{[citation needed]}

In summer IAAF Diamond League competition, Genzebe won the 1500 at Monaco.

2015[edit]

Genzebe won the Women’s 5000m – Nike Prefontaine Classic 2015 in Eugene, Oregon in a then personal best of 14:19.76.^[21] She then went on to win the 5000m at the Diamond League Meeting Areva in Paris on July 4 in a new personal best of 14:15:41. This was her (Fifth – 5th) 5000 meters under 14:30. Only four days later, set set a new African record 3:54.11, virtually single handedly running the fastest 1500 in the world in 18 years.^[2] Note: 6 of the 8 times ahead of her were run in two races at the Chinese National Games.

Achievements[edit]

Personal bests[edit]

• All information taken from IAAF profile.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Genzebe Dibaba profile at IAAF

Records
Preceded by Yelena Soboleva	Women’s 1,500m Indoor World Record Holder February 1, 2014 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by Meseret Defar	Women’s 3,000m Indoor World Record Holder February 6, 2014 – present	Succeeded by Incumbent
Awards
Preceded by Missy Franklin	Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year 2015	Succeeded by Incumbent