2001 – 2003: Early career In August 2001, Kenenisa set a
3000 metres world junior record by running 7:30.67 minutes in
Brussels. The record lasted for three and a half years, being broken by
Augustine Choge with a run of 7:28.78 minutes. In December 2000 and 2001 Kenenisa won the 15k roadrace Montferland Run in the Netherlands. For five years in a row, from 2002 (at the age of 19) through 2006, he took both short (4 km) and long (12 km) races at the
IAAF World Cross Country Championships, a feat no other runner has accomplished even once. After the IAAF eliminated the short course race in 2007, Kenenisa won a final long course race in 2008, bringing his World Cross Country medal totals to 11 senior individual gold medals (6 long course, 5 short course), 1 senior silver medal (2001), 1 junior gold medal (2001), 2 team gold medals (2004, 2005), 3 team silver medals (2002, 2003, & 2008), and 1 team bronze medal (2006) for a grand total of 19 medals. He won the short and long course world cross country titles, leading Ethiopia to the senior men's team title. He also won a gold medal in the men's 10,000 metres and a silver medal in the men's 5000 metres in the 2004 Olympic Games in
Athens.
2005 season On 4 January 2005, Kenenisa's fiancée, 18-year-old Alem Techale, died of an apparent heart attack while on a training run with him. Although it was initially stated that no
autopsy was performed, Alem's and Kenenisa's manager
Jos Hermens later said that an autopsy had revealed nothing conclusive about Techale's death. She was the
2003 World Youth Champion in the
1500 metres and in excellent physical condition. He resumed racing on 29 January, and lost indoors over 3000 m to Ireland's
Alistair Cragg after sprinting towards the line with one and a half laps to go, while thinking that there was only half a lap left. A few weeks later he lost to fellow Ethiopian
Markos Geneti over
two miles. In March, Kenenisa lined up to defend his long and short course titles at the
2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. He won on the short course despite a fast pace set by
Qatari
Saif Saaeed Shaheen, and followed that win with a long course victory the next day over
Eritrean
Zersenay Tadese and Kenyan rival
Eliud Kipchoge. On 8 August 2005, Kenenisa Bekele won the
gold medal in the 10,000 m at the
2005 World Championships in Helsinki with a last
200 m spurt. On 26 August 2005, Kenenisa set the
10,000 m world record 26:17.53 at the 29th
Memorial Van Damme meeting in
Brussels, slicing nearly three seconds off his previous world record 26:20.31, and running with 5000 m splits of 13:09 and 13:08 minutes. The race saw 6 runners finishing in less than 27 minutes, with Sammy Wanjiru dipping in 26:41.75, a new world junior record. At the end of 2005 Kenenisa was voted the
Track & Field News magazine athlete of the year for the second year in a row.
2006–2007 When Kenenisa won the 3000 m at the
2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships in
Moscow, he became the first athlete in history to be Olympic champion, world outdoor track champion, world indoor track champion, and world cross country champion. In 2006 he won five out of six
IAAF Golden League events (5000 m) in the same season, which earned him a total of US$83,333. On 17 February 2007, he broke the indoor world record over 2000 m in
Birmingham, with a time of 4:49.99. His spectacular final 300 m aided this time which would be considered excellent even outdoors. On 24 March 2007, however, his streak of 27 consecutive victories in cross country races (dating back to his last previous loss in December 2001) came to an end when after leading the race in the penultimate lap of the
2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in
Mombasa he succumbed to the very hot, humid conditions (which caused more than 1/6 of all competitors to drop out) and was passed by eventual winner
Zersenay Tadese on the last lap before Kenenisa dropped out. This was greeted with cheers by the Kenyan crowds, an occurrence which has been frowned upon by the wider athletics community. He recovered from that rare failure to take the 10,000-metre title at the
2007 IAAF World Championships in
Osaka, once again besting his compatriot
Sileshi Sihine. During that race, he looked like he was going to be dropped several times over the last 800 metres, but recovered to overtake Sileshi with 150 metres to go and take his third straight world title.
2008: Beijing Olympics In
Edinburgh on 30 March 2008, he won his sixth World Cross Country title (long course – 12k), breaking the three-way tie of 5 wins he had previously shared with
Paul Tergat and
John Ngugi. With this win, Kenenisa laid sole claim to most decorated athlete in
IAAF World Cross Country Championships history. He has won 6 long course (12k) individual gold medals, 5 short course (4k) gold medals, 1 junior championship (8k), and 4 team gold medals for a sum total of 16 gold medals. His overall medal count (both individual and team results) stands at 27 medals: 16 gold, 9 silver and 2 bronze. On 17 August 2008 Kenenisa won gold in the 10,000m finals with a time of 27:01.17, setting a new
Olympic Record in the process. In a race in which 20 men broke the 28-minute barrier and four finished under his 2004 Olympic record of 27:05.10, he needed his renowned finishing kick to pull out the victory, running a 53.42-second final 400 metres (similar to the 53.02-second final 400-metre sprint he used to win the gold medal in Athens in 2004 over the same distance). On 23 August 2008 Kenenisa bested his competitors and won the 5000-metre finals, shattering
Saïd Aouita's Olympic Record by almost eight seconds with a time of 12:57.82. The race was remarkable for his manner of doing most of the pacing himself before accelerating to a scintillating finish: his last 3000 metres only took 7:35.53, his final 2000 metres 4:56.97, last 1600 metres 3:57.01 (=3:58.4 final mile) and his final lap a punishing 53.87 seconds. By winning the 10,000/5000m double in the Beijing Olympics, Kenenisa joined another elite group of athletes:
Hannes Kolehmainen (1912),
Emil Zátopek (1952),
Vladimir Kuts (1956),
Lasse Virén (twice, in 1972 and 1976) and
Miruts Yifter (1980).
2009: Berlin World Championships Kenenisa Bekele won two gold medals at the
2009 World Championships in Athletics, held in Berlin. His double victories in 5000m (13:17.09) and 10,000m (26:46.31 – a World Championships Record) were unprecedented and by doing this became the first man to take both the long-distance track gold medals at the same World Championships. His talent combination of endurance and speed has made it nearly impossible to defeat Kenenisa when he is at full strength. During the 10,000m race in which he was running behind Eritrea's Zersenay Tadesse, the broadcaster declared "it is over, in fact it was over from the start" as the final lap began and Kenenisa turned an ostensibly close race into a blowout. The IAAF announcer concluded, "this man is probably the greatest distance runner we will ever see." In spite of his unrivalled success in athletics, Kenenisa did not experience the mainstream appeal that others such as Haile Gebrselassie did. His quiet demeanour and aversion to interviews did not make him a highly marketable athlete in the
Western world. Fellow
world record holder
Usain Bolt stated that Kenenisa Bekele's achievements had not received the recognition that they deserved.
2010: Injuries Kenenisa made a disappointing start to 2010, finishing fourth in the
Edinburgh Cross Country in a race he was favored to win – a trio of Kenyan athletes ran him out of the contest over the final lap. He spent the entirety of the indoor and outdoor seasons out with a ruptured calf muscle.
2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics Kenenisa Bekele finally returned to training after a knee injury in March 2011. Having not raced on the track since 2009, Kenenisa returned for the World Championships. He dropped out of the 10,000m with 10 laps remaining. Kenenisa decided not to run the 5000 m and returned to the Diamond League at the
Ivo Van Damme Memorial in Brussels where he set the fastest time in the world for the 10,000 metres in 2011. Kenenisa's 2012 season did not start well, as he was a lowly eleventh place at the Edinburgh Cross Country. In April, he appeared to have returned to form by winning the
Great Ireland Run in a new personal best time for a 10 km road race of 27:49, improving the course record by 46 seconds. In the
2012 London Olympics 10,000m race he ran within the leading group for the whole race, but could not keep up with the
Mo Farah's sprint in the last 150 metres and eventually finished fourth, with a time of 27:32.44, just 1.01 second outside the bronze medalist, his brother
Tariku. In his first race of 2013 he won the Great Ireland Run for a second time. Kenenisa then won the Great North Run half marathon in a time of 60:09, beating Mo Farah by just one second after making a move that Farah couldn't match with just less than 12 miles gone.
Marathon career ;2014 - 2015 Kenenisa Bekele started his marathon career in the
2014 Paris Marathon on 6 April 2014. His marathon debut was very successful as he bettered both the Paris course record and the debut marathon times of past legends Haile Gebrselassie, Paul Tergat and Samuel Wanjiru by running 2:05:04 to win. Kenenisa then went on to compete in the
2014 Chicago Marathon on 12 October 2014. He finished fourth in 2:05:51, 1min 40s behind Kenya's
Eliud Kipchoge. On 23 January 2015, Kenenisa took on the
Dubai Marathon, where he had to retire from the race after 30 km. He was planned to compete in the
2015 London Marathon but had to withdraw due to a persistent injury to his right
Achilles tendon. Following 11 months of injury, Kenenisa returned to racing at the
2016 London Marathon. Prior to the race he indicated he was only currently at 90% fitness. Kenenisa finished in 3rd place behind winner Eliud Kipchoge and runner-up
Stanley Biwott in a time of 2:06:36. This performance was despite the fact he only returned to jogging in early 2016 following injury and had only completed 6 weeks of specific marathon training. He was also hampered in the race by missing his drinks at 5 separate stations, due to them being used by the designated pacemakers. ;2016 - 2017 On 24 April, he placed third at the
2016 London Marathon with a time of two hours six minutes and 38 seconds. In September he won the
2016 Berlin Marathon in a time of 2:03:03 which set a new personal best time for him at the
Marathon distance and the second fastest marathon of all time. On 19 January 2017, attempting to break the world record, Kenenisa dropped out of the Dubai Marathon after the half way mark due to a fall at the beginning of the race. On 23 April 2017, Kenenisa finished second in the
London Marathon, finishing in 2:05:57, 9 seconds behind winner
Daniel Wanjiru. Kenenisa's outstanding track career led to his involvement in a project to break the two-hour barrier for the marathon, though a number of factors undermined this effort. ;2018 - 2019 Kenenisa ran the 2018
London Marathon in April and came in sixth place with a time of 2:08:53. He also ran the Amsterdam marathon in October 2018 but dropped out due to injury with about 2 km to go. Kenenisa won the
2019 Berlin Marathon in September in 2:01:41, the second fastest time ever at the time and just two seconds off of the world record set by
Eliud Kipchoge on the same course the previous year. After the run he stated that he still believes that he can break the world record. ;2020 - 2021 Kenenisa won the London half marathon on 1 March 2020 in 60:22. He improved on the course record set by
Mo Farah in 2019 by 1:18.
Chris Thompson came in second with 61:07, also within the former course record. Kenenisa returned to the
Berlin Marathon in September, where he placed third in 2:06:47. The race was won by his compatriot
Guye Adola in 2:05:45, while Kenya's
Bethwel Yegon finished second. In November, he finished six at the
2021 New York City Marathon with a time of 2:12:52. In April, he took part in the London Marathon but withdrew from the race after 25k mark. Then, in October, he announced on Instagram that he had departed from the NN running team and transitioned his sponsorship from Nike to Anta, a Chinese sports brand. In December, Kenenisa took part in the Valencia Marathon. Although he fell behind the leading group before reaching the 15 km mark, he managed to finish fourth in a M40 Master World Record with a time of 2:04:19. This achievement solidifies him as the first athlete aged over 40 to complete a marathon in sub 2:05 clocking.
2024 The 41-year-old Kenenisa competed in the
London Marathon on 21 April 2024, where he finished second behind
Alexander Munyao breaking his own Masters record by 4 seconds running 2:04:15. Kenenisa was selected to represent Ethiopia in the
marathon at the
2024 Summer Olympics. At 41 years of age, it was his fourth Olympic appearance and first time competing at the event since the 2012 London Olympics. Kenenisa ended up finishing in 39th place with a time of 2:12:24 ==Personal life==