Almaz Ayana Eba (; , born 21 November 1991
) is an Ethiopian
long-distance runner
Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength.
Within endurance ru ...
. She won the gold medal in the
10,000 metres
The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship-level events. The ...
and bronze in the
5,000 metres at the
2016 Rio Olympics. Almaz is a four-time
World Athletics Championships
The World Athletics Championships, known as the IAAF World Championships in Athletics until 2019, are a biennial sport of athletics, athletics competition organized by World Athletics, formerly International Association of Athletics Federations ...
medallist earning a bronze for the 5,000m in
2013
2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years).
2013 was designated as:
*International Year of Water Cooperation
*International Year of Quinoa
Events
January
* January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
, gold at the event in
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
as well as gold in the 10,000m and silver in the 5,000m in
2017
2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly.
Events January
* January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...
.
She broke the 10,000 metres world record, set in 1993, while winning the gold medal at the Rio Olympics and held it until 2021. At the 2017 World Championships in London, Almaz won the title in the 10,000m, finishing 46 seconds ahead of the runner-up. She finished third in both the 5,000m and 10,000m on the respective world all-time lists. In 2016, she was voted
IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
Female World Athlete of the Year.
Almaz set the fastest ever women's marathon debut at the 2022
Amsterdam Marathon
The Amsterdam Marathon, currently branded as TCS Amsterdam Marathon, is an annual marathon (42.195 km) in Amsterdam in the Netherlands since 1975. The road running, road race has a IAAF Road Race Label Events, Platinum Label from World Athle ...
.
Early life and background
Almaz Ayana was born in
Wenbera,
Benishangul-Gumuz Region
Benishangul-Gumuz () is a regional state in northwestern Ethiopia
Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Er ...
, Ethiopia.
Born the seventh youngest of nine siblings, she started running at local school around age 13–14. Like other notable athletes such as
Fatuma Roba and
Derartu Tulu
Derartu Tulu NL COL (, Amharic: ደራርቱ ቱሉ; born 21 March 1972) is an Ethiopian former long-distance runner, who competed in track, cross country running, and road running up to the marathon distance.
Derartu is the first Ethiopian ...
, Almaz is also Oromo descent. In addition to her native
Oromo language
Oromo, historically also called Galla, is an Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Oromo people, native to the Ethiopian state of Oromia; and northern Kenya. It is used as a lingua franca in Oromia an ...
, she also speaks
Amharic
Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...
. The name Almaz means 'diamond' in Amharic.
Almaz is married to her childhood friend and longtime partner, Soressa Fida.
She is a devout Christian.
Career
2013–2014: World 5000 m bronze in Moscow
At age 21, Almaz won a bronze medal in the
5000 metres
The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...
at the
2013 World Championships in Athletics
The 14th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (Moscow 2013; ) was an international athletics (sport), athletics competition held in Moscow, Russia, from 10 to 18 August 2013. Initially, Russia at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics, Russia ...
held in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, Russia.
At the
2014 African Championships in
Marrakech
Marrakesh or Marrakech (; , ) is the fourth-largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi Regions of Morocco, region. The city lies west of the foothills of the Atlas Mounta ...
, she defeated favourite
Genzebe Dibaba to take the title in a championship record time of 15:32.72. One month later at the
Continental Cup also held in Marrakech, she won the 5000 m by over 24 seconds.
2015: World 5000 m champion in Beijing

In May 2015, Almaz ran a personal best of 14:14.32 over 5000 m at the
Diamond League
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions.
The inaugural season was ...
meeting in
Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
, China, improving significantly upon her previous personal best of 14:25.84 set in 2013 in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
.
This made her the
third fastest female athlete over that distance, behind compatriots
Tirunesh Dibaba
Tirunesh Dibaba (, Amharic: ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 1 October 1985) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner athlete who competes in long-distance track events and international road races. She has won three Olympic track gold meda ...
, the world record holder, and
Meseret Defar. At the
Beijing World Championships in August, she put on a stunning display of front-running to win the
5000 m final with a time of 14:26.83, setting a new championship record in the process and beating silver medalist
Senbere Teferi by more than 17 seconds with
Genzebe Dibaba in third. Her win was named the Performance of the Championships by World Athletics. In her final race of the season, Almaz set a new 3000 m meeting record of 8:22.34 to beat Tirunesh Dibaba at the
Zurich Diamond League.
2016: Rio Olympic 10,000 m champion with a world record, bronze at 5000 m
Almaz opened her season by winning over 3000 m at the
Doha Diamond League on the 6 May, running a time of 8:23.11 which narrowly missed her personal best. On 2 June 2016, Almaz set a new personal best in the 5000 m in a time of 14:12.59 at the
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
Diamond League
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions.
The inaugural season was ...
. This made her the second fastest woman ever at this distance, behind only Tirunesh Dibaba's world record of 14:11.15, and established a new circuit record. Later that month, she ran the
10,000 metres
The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship-level events. The ...
competitively for the first time at the Ethiopian Olympic trials in
Hengelo
Hengelo (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the Twente region, in the province of Overijssel. It is part of a larger urban area that also includes Enschede, Borne, Overijssel, Borne, Almelo and Ol ...
, Netherlands. She posted the fastest ever debut time of 30:07.00, defeating Tirunesh Dibaba and moving up to eighth on the world all-time list.
At the
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...
held in August in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...
, Almaz set a world record of 29:17.45 in the
10,000 metres
The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship-level events. The ...
, topping Chinese athlete
Wang Junxia's 23-year-old world record by 14 seconds.
No one previously had run within 22 seconds of Wang's record. The 10,000 metres was already an extremely fast race when Ayana broke away with 12 laps to go. Second-placed
Vivian Cheruiyot
Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot (born 11 September 1983) is a Kenyan Long-distance running, long-distance runner. She represented Kenya at the Athletics at the Summer Olympics, Summer Olympics in 2000, 2008, 2012, and 2016, winning the silver medal i ...
of Kenya finished just a second shy of Wang's record and double Olympic 10,000 metres champion Tirunesh Dibaba earned the bronze medal with a 12 seconds improvement on her personal best and the fourth fastest time in history. Multiple national records were set, and eighteen competitors set personal bests. The lax
drug testing
A drug test (also often toxicology screen or tox screen) is a technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, or oral fluid/saliva—to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs o ...
regime in Ethiopia and the doping scandals that embroiled athletics before the Rio Olympics caused some to question whether Almaz had been doping.
British commentators
Brendan Foster
Sir Brendan Foster (born 12 January 1948) is a British former long-distance runner, athletics commentator and road race organiser. He founded the Great North Run, one of the sport's most high profile half-marathon races. As an athlete, he wo ...
and
Paula Radcliffe
Paula Jane Radcliffe Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a British former long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 200 ...
, both former world record holders in distance events, were skeptical about Almaz's performance.
Fellow competitors reported that before the race, the Ethiopian was coughing and did not seem well.
In her post-race press conference, Almaz said her time was purely the outcome of hard training. On 9 September, in her first race since the Olympics, Almaz attempted to break Tirunesh Dibaba's 2008 5000 m world record of 14:11.15 at the
Brussels Diamond League. Despite a strong start, she fell short of breaking the record but did set a meeting record of 14:18.99.
2017: 10,000 m gold and 5000 m silver at the London World Championships

On 5 August 2017, Almaz secured a dominant victory as she won over 10,000 metres at the
World Championships
A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...
in London with a world-leading 30:16.32, She ran her final 5,000 m in 14:24.94, a time that would've placed her seventh on the
all-time 5,000 m lists at the time.
Her win set the record for the biggest margin of victory over 10,000 m at a World Championship and was described as "one of the finest displays in women’s distance running history" by
Letsrun.
She went on to add a silver for the 5,000 metres eight days later, having ran a time of 14:40.35 to finish behind Kenya's
Hellen Obiri (14:34.86). Almaz made her debut over the
half marathon
A half marathon is a road running event of —half the distance of a marathon. It is common for a half marathon event to be held concurrently with a marathon or a 5K race, using almost the same course with a late start, an early finish, or shortcu ...
at the
New Delhi Half Marathon winning in a time of 1:07:12.
2018–present: Injuries, motherhood and comeback
The Ethiopian distance running star took almost three years off due to injury problems and pregnancy. Her only race during this time was at the
2019 Prefontaine Classic where she placed 18th over 3,000 m in a time of 8:57.16. Almaz started regularly competing again from April 2022.
Almaz made her return to the track at the 2022
FBK Games in
Hengelo
Hengelo (; Tweants dialect, Tweants: ) is a city in the eastern part of the Netherlands, in the Twente region, in the province of Overijssel. It is part of a larger urban area that also includes Enschede, Borne, Overijssel, Borne, Almelo and Ol ...
, placing seventh over the 10,000 m in 30:48.48. She also placed sixth over 5,000 m at the
Oslo Diamond League in 14:32.17.
On 16 October 2022, the 30-year-old made the fastest ever women's
marathon
The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There ...
debut of 2:17:20 at the
Amsterdam Marathon
The Amsterdam Marathon, currently branded as TCS Amsterdam Marathon, is an annual marathon (42.195 km) in Amsterdam in the Netherlands since 1975. The road running, road race has a IAAF Road Race Label Events, Platinum Label from World Athle ...
to win the race and defeat her old-time rival Genzebe Dibaba by 45 seconds. Almaz beat the course record by almost 40 seconds, setting a Dutch all-comers' record (best performance on country's soil) and putting her seventh on the
world all-time list at the time.
In 2023, Almaz opened her season by winning the
Lisbon Half Marathon
EDP Lisbon Half Marathon is an annual international half marathon competition which is contested every March in Lisbon, Portugal. It carries IAAF Gold Label Road Race status. The men's course record of 57:31 was set by Jacob Kiplimo in 2021, which ...
in a course record of 1:05:30. On 17 September, Almaz competed over the
10 mile distance for the first time by placing third at the
Dam tot Damloop in
Zaandam
Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan ...
in 52:23. She set a new personal best for the marathon of 2:16:20 in finishing second behind
Worknesh Degefa at the
Valencia Marathon.
Recognition
* 2016 –
IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
Female World Athlete of the Year.
Achievements
Information from
World Athletics
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...
profile unless otherwise noted.
International competitions
Personal bests
Circuit wins and titles, National titles
*
Diamond League
The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions.
The inaugural season was ...
Overall 5000 m winner:
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
**
2015
2015 was designated by the United Nations as:
* International Year of Light
* International Year of Soil __TOC__
Events
January
* January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
(2):
Shanghai Golden Grand Prix
The Shanghai Diamond League is an annual athletics event at the Shanghai Stadium in Shanghai, China, as part of the Diamond League. The meeting was founded as the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in 2005. The meet assumed its current name in 2010.
Fr ...
(5000m, ),
Zürich Weltklasse (3000m, )
**
2016
2016 was designated as:
* International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly.
* International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...
(4):
Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix (3000m, WL),
Rabat Meeting International Mohammed VI d'Athlétisme (5000m, WL MR),
Rome Golden Gala - Pietro Mennea (5000m, WL DLR),
Brussels Memorial Van Damme (5000m, MR)
*
Ethiopian Athletics Championships
The Ethiopian Athletics Championships is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, which serves as the national championship for the sport in Ethiopia. The competition was first held in 1971.
**
5000 metres
The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a sta ...
: 2014
**
3000 metres steeplechase
The 3000 metres steeplechase or 3000-meter steeplechase (usually Abbreviation, abbreviated as ) is the most common distance for the steeplechase (athletics), steeplechase in track and field. It is an obstacle race over the distance of the 3000 met ...
: 2013
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Almaz Ayana
1991 births
Living people
Ethiopian female long-distance runners
Ethiopian female steeplechase runners
Sportspeople from Benishangul-Gumuz Region
World Athletics Championships athletes for Ethiopia
World Athletics Championships medalists
Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic athletes for Ethiopia
Olympic gold medalists for Ethiopia
Olympic bronze medalists for Ethiopia
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field)
World Athletics record holders
Olympic female long-distance runners
World Athletics Championships winners
Diamond League winners
IAAF Continental Cup winners
Oromo people
Ethiopian Christians