Genzebe Dibaba facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Genzebe Dibaba

Genzebe Dibaba in 2016
Personal information
Born	(1991-02-08) 8 February 1991 (age 34) Chefe, Bekoji, Arsi Province, PDR Ethiopia
Height	168 cm
Weight	52 kg
Sport
Country	Ethiopia
Sport	Women's athletics
Event(s)	1500 metres, 3000 metres, 5000 metres
Team	NN Running Team (2023–)
Coached by	Tolera Dinka
Achievements and titles
World finals	2009 5000 m, 8th 2011 5000 m, 8th 2013 1500 m, 7th 2015 1500 m, 1 Gold 5000 m, 3 Bronze 2017 1500 m, 12th
Olympic finals	2012 1500 m, 22nd (h) 2016 1500 m, 2 Silver
Personal best(s)	1500 m: 3:50.07 NR (Monaco 2015) Mile: 4:14.30 NR (Rovereto 2016) 3000 m: 8:21.29 (Palo Alto, CA 2019) 5000 m: 14:15.41 (Paris 2015) Indoors 1000 m: 2:33.06i NR (Madrid 2017) 1500 m: 3:55.17i (Karlsruhe 2014) Mile: 4:13.31i WR (Stockholm 2016) 2000 m: 5:23.75i WB (Sabadell 2017) 3000 m: 8:16.60i WR (Stockholm 2014) Two miles: 9:00.48i WB (Birmingham 2014) 5000 m: 14:18.86i WR (Stockholm 2015)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Ethiopia Olympic Games 0 Olympic Games Silver 2016 Rio de Janeiro 1500 m World Championships Gold 2015 Beijing 1500 m Bronze 2015 Beijing 5000 m World Indoor Championships Gold 2012 Istanbul 1500 m Gold 2014 Sopot 3000 m Gold 2016 Portland 3000 m Gold 2018 Birmingham 1500 m Gold 2018 Birmingham 3000 m Continental Cup Gold 2014 Marrakech 3000 m Diamond League 2015 5000 m World Junior Championships Gold 2010 Moncton 5000 m Silver 2008 Bydgoszcz 5000 m World Cross Country Championships Gold 2008 Edinburgh Junior race Gold 2008 Edinburgh Junior team Gold 2009 Amman Junior race Gold 2009 Amman Junior team Silver 2010 Bydgoszcz Junior team Silver 2011 Punta Umbria Senior team Silver 2017 Kampala Mixed relay Bronze 2007 Mombasa Junior team

Genzebe Dibaba Keneni (born February 8, 1991) is a super fast runner from Ethiopia. She competes in middle-distance and long-distance races. Genzebe won a silver medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in the 1,500 meters. She also earned a gold medal in the 1,500 meters and a bronze in the 5,000 meters at the 2015 World Championships. Genzebe holds world records for indoor races like the one-mile, 3,000m, and 5,000m.

Genzebe has competed in many World Athletics Championships from 2009 to 2017. She always made it to the final races! She is a five-time World Indoor champion. She won the 1,500m in 2012, and the 3,000m in 2014 and 2016. In 2018, she won both the 1,500m and 3,000m indoor titles.

Genzebe was amazing even when she was a junior athlete. At just 17 years old in 2008, she won her first junior World Cross Country Championships title. She also got a silver medal in the 5,000m at the World U20 Championships. The next year, she won her second junior Cross Country title. In 2010, she won the 5,000m gold at the World U20 Championships. She also won the 2015 Diamond League title. Genzebe was named the Laureus Sportswoman of the Year for 2014. She was also the IAAF World Female Athlete of the Year in 2015.

Genzebe comes from a family of incredible athletes. Her sisters, Tirunesh Dibaba and Ejegayehu Dibaba, are also famous runners. Her cousin, Derartu Tulu, is an Olympic champion too!

About Genzebe Dibaba's Family

Genzebe Dibaba is part of the Oromo people from a high-altitude area in Ethiopia. This region is known for producing great runners. Her older sister, Tirunesh Dibaba, is a very famous athlete with many medals. Another older sister, Ejegayehu Dibaba, won a silver medal in the 10,000 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Her brother, Dejene, is also a runner. Her aunt, Derartu Tulu, won Olympic gold medals in the 10,000m in 1992 and 2000.

Genzebe Dibaba's Running Career

Genzebe won the junior women's title at the 2008 and 2009 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. She was the second junior woman ever to win two junior cross country championships in a row. She also ran in big races called IAAF Golden League meetings. In 2008, she set a personal best in the 5000 meters. Her sister Tirunesh set a new world record in the same race! Genzebe improved her personal best again a year later.

Early Senior Races: 2009–2010

After winning the 5000m at the Ethiopian Athletics Championships, Genzebe joined the Ethiopian team for the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships. She took her sister Tirunesh's place, who was injured. Genzebe did very well, finishing fourth in her heat and qualifying for the final. In her first big senior championship race, she finished eighth. She also won the 5000m gold at the 2009 African Junior Athletics Championships.

She started her 2009–10 cross country season with a win. She also competed indoors, improving her 1500m best time. Even with her senior wins, she didn't get a third junior cross country title. She finished eleventh, but still helped her Ethiopian team win a silver medal. Later, at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, she won the 5000m gold. She set a new championship record time.

Genzebe won her first senior world title in the 1500m at the 2012 World Indoor Championships.

Moving to 1500m: 2011–2012

In January 2011, she was second at the Great Edinburgh Cross Country race. Two months later, she finished ninth at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. Genzebe improved her 5000m best time at the Bislett Games. She then placed eighth in the event at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. After this, she started focusing more on the 1500 metres race. This change helped her career a lot!

She started 2012 with the fifth fastest indoor 1500m time ever. She won a race in Germany. After another win, she got her first world title at the 2012 IAAF World Indoor Championships. Outdoors, Genzebe set an Ethiopian record time of 3:57.77 minutes. She was chosen for the 2012 London Olympics. However, a leg injury during her race meant she couldn't finish the competition.

Breaking World Records: 2013–2014

Genzebe running to her 3000m gold medal at the 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot.

Genzebe started 2013 by winning a 3km race. She then had two indoor wins in other competitions.

On February 1, 2014, in Germany, Genzebe ran the 1500m indoor event in 3:55.17. This broke the old indoor world record by more than 3 seconds! It was the fastest 1500m time in the world, indoors or outdoors, since 1997.

Five days later, she broke another world indoor record in the 3000 metres. She ran it in 8:16.60 in Sweden. In that one race, Genzebe improved her own best time by over thirty seconds. She broke the world record by almost seven seconds! Even though it was indoors, her time was the fourth fastest ever at that distance.

In February, in just 15 days, Genzebe broke her third world record! This time it was in the indoor two-mile race. Her new record was 9 minutes and 0.48 seconds. This broke the previous best by six seconds.

Because of these records, Genzebe is one of only three athletes in history to break three world records in three different events within 15 days. She is the only one to do this in three different cities and races, all in individual events.

In the summer, Genzebe won the 1500m race at a IAAF Diamond League competition in Monaco.

Genzebe at the Bislett Games in Oslo in 2015.

Amazing Year: 2015

In 2015, Genzebe changed her shoe sponsor. In February, she set another world record in Sweden, this time for the 5000 meters with a time of 14:18.86.

Genzebe won the women's 5000m at a race in the USA. She set a new personal best time of 14:19.76. She then won the 5000m at another Diamond League event in Paris. There, she set an even faster personal best time of 14:15:41. This was her fifth time running the 5000 meters in under 14:30. Just four days later, in Spain, she set a new African record for the 1500m with 3:54.11. On July 17, 2015, in Monaco, Genzebe broke the 1500m world record. Her time was 3:50:07, which was thought to be almost impossible to beat!

Genzebe (center) with Faith Kipyegon (left) and Sifan Hassan (right) at the medal ceremony during the 2015 World Championships in Beijing.

At the World Championships in Beijing, she won the gold medal in the 1500m. She also earned a bronze medal in the 5000m event.

She was named the IAAF women's World Athlete of the Year for 2015.

Olympic Silver: 2016

In February 2016, Genzebe ran in a meeting in Stockholm. She ran the indoor mile in 4 minutes and 13.31 seconds. This broke Doina Melinte's 26-year-old world record! In April, she had to pull out of a race because of an injury to her left foot. In June, she couldn't finish a 5000m race due to another injury and had to leave the track in a wheelchair.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Dibaba ran the women's 1500m. She won her heat and was the fastest in the semifinals. In the final race, she won the silver medal with a time of 4:10.27.

More Records: 2017

Genzebe broke the 2000m indoor world record on February 7, 2017, in Spain. She ran the distance in 5:23.75. This was an improvement on the old indoor best by 6 seconds! It also broke the outdoor world record.

An illness stopped her from running her best at the 2017 World Athletics Championships. She finished 12th in the 1500m and later pulled out of the 5000m event.

Since September, she has been coached by Hussein Shibo and Tolera Dinka.

Double Gold: 2018

At the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, she won both the 1500m and the 3000m races.

Strong Performances: 2019

Genzebe won the 1500m race in Rome on June 6 with a time of 3:56.28. She then won another 1500m race in Rabat on June 16 with 3:55.47.

In the 1500m Diamond League Final in August, Genzebe finished fourth.

New Challenges: 2020–2022

In her first race since August 2019, Genzebe won the Valencia Half Marathon in December 2020. Her time of 65:18 was the fastest half marathon debut by a woman at that time.

On October 16, 2022, she ran her first full marathon at the Amsterdam Marathon. She placed second with a time of 2:18:05. This amazing performance put her in the world's top 20 fastest marathon runners of all time!

Genzebe Dibaba's Achievements

Genzebe at the 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot.

All information taken from World Athletics profile.

Fastest Times (Personal Bests)

International Competitions

Representing  Ethiopia

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
2007	World Cross Country Championships	Mombasa, Kenya	5th	Junior race (6 km)	21:23
2008	World Cross Country Championships	Edinburgh, United Kingdom	1st	Junior race (6 km)	19:59
	World Junior Championships	Bydgoszcz, Poland	2nd	5000 m	16:16.75
2009	World Cross Country Championships	Amman, Jordan	1st	Junior race (6 km)	20:14
	African Junior Championships	Bambous, Mauritius	1st	5000 m	16:11.85
	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	8th	5000 m	15:11.12
2010	World Cross Country Championships	Bydgoszcz, Poland	11th	Junior race (6 km)	19:21
	World Junior Championships	Moncton, Canada	1st	5000 m	15:08.06
2011	World Cross Country Championships	Punta Umbría, Spain	9th	Senior race (8 km)	25:36
	World Championships	Daegu, South Korea	8th	5000 m	15:09.35
2012	World Indoor Championships	Istanbul, Turkey	1st	1500 m i	4:05.78
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	22nd (h)	1500 m	4:11.15
2013	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	7th	1500 m	4:05.99
2014	World Indoor Championships	Sopot, Poland	1st	3000 m i	8:55.04
	African Championships	Marrakesh, Morocco	2nd	5000 m	15:42.16
	Continental Cup	Marrakesh, Morocco	1st	3000 m	8:57.53
2015	World Championships	Beijing, China	1st	1500 m	4:08.09
			3rd	5000 m	14:44.14
2016	World Indoor Championships	Portland, United States	1st	3000 m i	8:47.43
	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	2nd	1500 m	4:10.27
2017	World Cross Country Championships	Kampala, Uganda	2nd	Mixed relay (8 km)	22:30
	World Championships	London, United Kingdom	12th	1500 m	4:06.72
2018	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	1st	1500 m i	4:05.27
			1st	3000 m i	8:45.05

Circuit Wins and Titles

• Diamond League Overall winner 5000 m: 2015
  • 2012 (1) 1500 m: Shanghai Diamond League (MR NR)
  • 2013 (1) 5000 m: Shanghai
  • 2014 (2) 5000 m: Rome Golden Gala, Monaco Herculis
  • 2015 [4]: (3) 5000 m: Eugene Prefontaine Classic (MR), Oslo Bislett Games, Meeting de Paris (MR); (1) 1500 m: Monaco (DLR WR)
  • 2016 (1) 3000 m: Lausanne Athletissima
  • 2017 [2]: (1) 5000 m: Eugene; (1) One mile: Lausanne (MR)
  • 2018 (1) 5000 m: Eugene
  • 2019 (2) 1500 m: Rome, Rabat Meeting (MR)

See also

In Spanish: Genzebe Dibaba para niños