(ማስታወቂያ)
When it comes to the Olympics, Ethiopia is one of the few successful African countries; Since participating in her first summer Olympics event in 1956 Melbourne, every now and then, Ethiopia has been providing some dramatic incidents to the game. Of course, that is in addition to breaking records and winning lots and lots of medals, in style.
Below are some of the most memorable incidents that happened. . . (Please don’t read the last one! 👀)
Ethiopia won her first of many gold medals in the Olympics events by a 28 years old Abebe Bikila, who had to run a marathon barefooted. His running shoes were worn-out, so he got a shoe sponsor and was training with those new shoes. Unfortunately, the new shoes gave him blisters and he was compelled to make the bold decision of RUNNING A MARATHON, BAREFOOTED. So he did not pack any racing shoes when he went to the Rome Olympics. Due to the difficult hot weather on the racing day, the marathon event was scheduled to start at 5:30 pm. As the race was reaching its 32km mark, the sun began to disappear and it got dark. So the racing route was lit with torches for the spectators to see Abebe’s barefoot dominating the cobblestone road.
To the surprise of the whole world did he not only won the race, he also broke an Olympic Games record by finishing the race at 2:15:16. He improved this record to 2:12:11 on the next Olympics event which was held in 1964, Tokyo Japan. He wore shoes this time though! This was the first-ever Gold medal for Africa in the Olympic events, so one can consider it as the spark that ignited inspiration in the hearts of many African athletes that followed.
One of the most spectacular rivalries in the long-distance events of Athletics is undoubtedly seen between Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia and Paul Tergat of Kenya. Even though it lasted 14 years their contention was dominated by the then World and Olympics record holder Haile Gebrselassie. But there were still times when Paul Tergat almost won; otherwise, we wouldn’t call it a ‘rivalry’, would we? One of those close calls happened at the Sydney Olympics of the year 2000, where Haile came first only in the last 10 meters to catch up to and win the gold medal from the almost escaped Paul Tergat.
The last 100 meters of this competition were so intense that it looked like short distance race! Haile won the race by creating a gap of 0.09s between them; this is a way narrower gap than the 100-meter race which was 0.12s.
Ethiopia was represented by three athletes for the 10,000 meters race of the 2004 Athens Olympic.
These three athletes were;-
Haile Gebresilassie, the most experienced and oldest of the three.
Kenenisa Bekele, the icon for the new generation of Ethiopian athletes with some incredible performances.
Sileshi Sihen, who was relatively new just like Kenenisa Bekele, also with incredible performances
This is one of the most favorite and memorable Olympic races in the hearts of all Ethiopians; because it showed the love and care our athletes have for each other.
It even has a song dedicated to it, sung by our beloved Tewodros Kassahun (Teddy Afro), which was released in less than an hour after the race was finished.
This song gave most Ethiopians teary eyes of joy and it still fills us with feelings of patriotism and pride.
What happened in the race was,
The three athletes were leading the race with Zersenay Tadesse of Eritrea and Boniface Kiprop Toroitich of Uganda up to the 20th minute,
but starting from then Haile Gebresilassie started to fall behind.
At the end of the 21st minute, Kenenisa and Sileshi would start looking back trying to call Haile back to the front as he is falling behind too much,
Besides, It was time to increase the pace of the race!
Haile tried to respond to his friends’ worried call by getting as close as he could to the front bunch, But they were too fast for him! Kenenisa and Sileshi would take one last look to the back on the 24th minute, and realize Haile was not going to make it, So they bolted away and won the Gold and Silver medal for their country, and Haile came fifth. Due to two reasons, most people considered this event to be the passing of the torch between the new and the older Ethiopian Athlete generations, The first reason was, this was Kenenisa’s debut and his first gold medal in the Olympics, and he also won the silver medal in the 5000m race. The second was Haile Gebresilassie announced his transition to the Marathon race after this event.
Liz McColgan of Great Britain was most people’s favorite to win the women’s 10,000m race of the Olympics which was hosted by Barcelona in 1992. But there was another athlete in the mix, who was getting much less attention. Derartu Tulu. Derartu won the gold medal after leading the race lap after lap in an interchanging manner with South African athlete Elana Meyer. This made her the first-ever Ethiopian and African woman to win the gold medal in the Olympics. This race is most known for the way Derartu and Elana celebrated the win together, unknowingly signaling the beginning of the new era of African women in the Olympics.
“Imagine a black, young African girl in the ocean of humidity and heat and an atmosphere beyond imagination snatching the gold,” said Tulu. “It was an unforgettable situation”.
In Japan, Osaka’s weather was humid and hot, putting the Olympic athletes in physical discomfort. This unfortunate situation seemed to have gotten the better of one particularly expected athlete of the 10000m women’s race, who was already experiencing stomach cramps even before the race, That athlete was none other than Ethiopia’s beloved Tirunesh Dibaba, who was only 21 at the time! It got clear that she was in pain as she was continuously clutching her stomach in an obvious discomfort throughout the race. In what seemed to be a desperate action to ease this pain, at one point she swerved out to grab a bottle of water from one of the nourishment tables lined up along the back. That left her almost thirty meters adrift of the field. As if all this was not enough, She was involved in a fall around the 6000m mark of the race, this left her further behind and it took her 4 laps to get to the front bunch. . . She went through all these difficulties to win the gold medal by passing the finish line at 31:55.41 In her interview shortly after the victory, she states
“If it had been another competition I would have stopped, and I only finished because it was a race for my country. I had stomach pains.”
The women's marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia was held on Sunday, July 28, 1996, beginning at 07:05h local time. This race was particularly unique and important for all of Ethiopia as well as Africa. that’s because Ethiopian Athlete Fatuma Roba would snatch the first ever gold medal in the woman’s marathon competition for her country Ethiopia and her continent Africa. She finished the race at 2:26:05. In doing so, she is believed to have been an inspiration for all African women.
Ethiopia was experiencing massive political unrest and its severe consequences when she sent her representative Athletes to the 2016 Rio Olympics. Injustice was a common thing and mass arrest and execution were the go-to solutions of the government on any kind of protest. Among the Athletes who were to represent Ethiopia in the event was Feyisa Lelisa, who has won the Rotterdam marathon in 2010. Feyisa is from Oromia, a region in Ethiopia where there were consecutive protests at the time, because of all this, he was not afraid to use the Olympics stage to show his protest. In the men’s marathon event of the competition, we would come second following Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya. For the final 100 meters of the race, he kept his hands high up in the air in the crossed wrists manner, indicating and condemning the fact that he and his people are shackled by the oppressive government of Ethiopia. This was a common way of protesting in the country, especially by the Oromo people. He protested again at the medal award ceremony. Following his actions he did not return to Ethiopia, instead, he looked for political asylum in the U.S and was given a special skill visa. He returned home in October of 2018, following the political reform by Prime Minister Doctor Abiy Ahmed Ali.
This is another story where Ethiopia stands out unique in the Olympics events,
but not in a good way like before. . .
This is a story that created such a wave at the time that even children in Ethiopia knew the name “Robel Kiros” and were using it to mock each other.
He was a representative of Ethiopia in the 100m freestyle swimming.
The issue was, his physique was poor for a casual swimmer let alone for a professional one.
Despite him being the first ever to represent his country in swimming, to see him standing there with other extremely in shape athletes, didn’t create the feeling of pride in the hearts of most Ethiopians.
People blamed the Ethiopian Athletics Federation for acts of nepotism, claiming there definitely were much better swimmers in the country.
Robel finished the competition 59th out of 59 contenders.
DONE, that is the last of my list, which one of these incidents is your favorite? Or do you have any other that you would add to the list??
Let me know in the comment! And don’t forget to share this blog, it helps a lot. . . 😉
