Background

Just turned 23, Tirunesh Dibaba for the past 4 years has been among the hottest female athletes in the world in any sport: since her bronze medal in Athens, she has broken both the indoor and outdoor 5000m World Records, tied the world 5K road-race record, won double gold at World Cross Country and become the first athlete, man or woman, ever crowned World Champion at both 5000 and 10,000 meters. Starting with her breakthrough in 2003, when she finished 7th at senior World Cross just a day after winning the junior title, the cousin of three-time Olympic medalist Derartu Tulu has lived up to the family reputation for accomplishing both the daring and the historic. And she is not alone: her older sister, Ejegayehu, is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist at 10,000 meters; her younger sister, Genzebe, made her professional debut at the Reebok Grand Prix in NYC in 2007 and is the 2008 World Junior Cross Country Champion; and little brother Dejene is looking good at 800m. When asked at whether there were still more to come, Tirunesh smiled and nodded.

Tirunesh – whose name in Amharic means “you are good” but who has also been aptly called the “baby-faced destroyer”– in 2003 became the youngest athlete ever to win an individual gold medal at the World Championships, and in 2004 became the youngest Ethiopian to win an Olympic medal. Does she agree with the “baby-faced destroyer” description? “I believe so then and now, too. I have to “destroy” in this business of ours. I cannot be off guard.”

In March 2008, Tirunesh won her third World Cross Country 8K title, tying her with Tulu and Lynn Jennings. Adding her short-course title in 2005 and her Junior title the year before, she joins Grete Waitz of Norway with five individual gold medals and Werknesh Kidane as a winner of eight individual medals overall. Toss in the team titles, and Tirunesh has 14 gold medals from the World Cross Country Championships, the most of any athlete in history.