2018 In February, Letesenbet won the 6 km race at the sixth leg of the
IAAF Cross Country Permit series taking place in
San Vittore Olona, Italy. Her winning time was 18:14. On 26 May, she ran the 5,000 m at the
Prefontaine Classic in
Eugene, U.S. and placed second in a time of 14:30.29, beating Obiri in third in 14:35.03; Genzebe Dibaba won the race in 14:26.89.
2019: World 10,000 m silver medallist On 10 February, Letesenbet competed in the 10 km run at the Jan Meda Cross Country Championships in Addis Ababa, finishing second with a time of 35:55. The winner of the event was
Dera Dida in 35:50. At the
World Cross Country Championships in
Aarhus, Denmark, she participated in the
senior race. The world 5000 m champion Hellen Obiri took the title on the extremely hilly 10.2 km course with a time of 36:14, Dida was the runner-up in 36:16, and Letesenbet earned the bronze medal by clocking 36:24. She raced the 10,000 m at the Ethiopian Championships in Addis Ababa on 8 May, winning in a time of 32:10.2. At the
Diamond League Prefontaine Classic meet in
Stanford, California on 30 June, she took third place in the 3000 m race with a time of 8:20.27, a new African outdoor best. The winner was Sifan Hassan in 8:18.49, a European record, and
Konstanze Klosterhalfen was second in 8:20.07. Seven of the top 15 runners ran personal bests. On 17 July, Letesenbet won the 10,000 m Ethiopian trials on the track in
Hengelo, Netherlands in a time of 30:37.89. At the Diamond League final in
Brussels, Letesenbet finished second in the 5000 m with a time of 14:29.54. Hassan won the race in 14:26.26. in
Doha;
Sifan Hassan (C),
Agnes Tirop (R). On 28 September, Letesenbet took the silver medal in the 10,000 m at the
World Championships held in
Doha, Qatar, with a personal best of
30:21.23. Hassan won the race in a time of 30:17.33, a new Dutch national record, with Agnes Tirop third in 30:25.50.
World 15K run record On 17 November 2019, Letesenbet set a new world record of 44m 20s in the
15 km road race at the
Zevenheuvelenloop road race in
Nijmegen, Netherlands, breaking the 2017 world record held by
Joyciline Jepkosgei by one minute and 17 seconds, and becoming the first woman to run 15K under 45 minutes. Letesenbet ran the final 10K in 29:12, the fastest time ever recorded by a woman under any conditions (
Almaz Ayana's track world record for 10,000 m was at the time at 29:17.45). Her average pace through 15K was 2:57 per kilometre. She lowered by more than 2 minutes
Tirunesh Dibaba's 2009 world record set also at the Zevenheuvelenloop in 46:28, which was, in turn, a 27-second improvement on the former mark at the time. She received a prize of 50,000 euros for her world record.
2020 At the
Monaco Diamond League meet on 14 August, Letesenbet was defeated in the 5000 m race by Hellen Obiri, who set a meeting record, 14:26.57 to 14:22.12.
World 5000 m record On 7 October 2020, at the NN
Valencia World Record Day meet, the 22-year-old broke Tirunesh Dibaba's 2008 record in the 5000 m taking more than 4 seconds off to
stop the clock at 14:06.62. Letesenbet's 5000m world record has since been broken by
Faith Kipyegon of
Kenya, in a time of 14:05.20, set in June 2023 at the
Paris Diamond League. Letesenbet was in this race and finished second to Kipyegon in a season's best time of 14:07.94.
2021: Tokyo Olympic 10,000 m bronze medallist World 10,000 m record On 6 June,
Sifan Hassan set a 10,000 m world record of 29:06.82. Just two days later, on 8 June, Letesenbet broke
Hassan's record at the Ethiopian trials on the same track by more than four seconds with a time of 29:01.03, running the last lap in one minute and three seconds. She was slightly behind the world record pace at the halfway point but began to accelerate after 7000 m. Her time for the second half of the race of 14:18 was the eighth-quickest women's 5000 m time ever run. She became the first woman to hold both the 5000 m and 10,000 m world records since Ingrid Kristiansen from 1986 to 1993. Gidey's 10,000 m world record has since been broken by
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya, who ran 28:54.14 at the
2024 Prefontaine Classic on 25 May. Racing in the
event at the delayed
2020 Tokyo Olympics in August, Letesenbet took the bronze medal, however. After the tactical race, she led on the final bend but was then outsprinted by both Hassan (29:55.32) and Bahrain's
Kalkidan Gezahegne (29:56.18) to finish third in 30:01.72.
World half marathon record On 24 October 2021, on her half marathon debut, Letesenbet finished in 62m 52s at the
Valencia Half Marathon, becoming the first woman to run under 64 minutes (legally) and under 63 minutes, and improving upon previous
Ruth Chepng'etich's world record by 70 seconds (52 s upon an unratified mark of
Yalemzerf Yehualaw). She reached 10K in 29:45 – the third-fastest clocking in history and just seven seconds off the world record for the distance, and her 15K time was only nine seconds slower than her own world best. Letesenbet's 70-second improvement of the world record was the biggest drop in the women's half marathon since 1978.
2022: World 10,000 m champion in
Eugene. Letesenbet claimed her first senior global title and her first global track title at the
World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July. She held off a twin Kenyan challenge in a nail-biting finish (the top 3 were only separated by 0.13 s) to win the
10,000 metres gold, achieving a world-leading time of 30:09.94 ahead of
Hellen Obiri in 30:10.02 and
Margaret Kipkemboi in 30:10.07. Seven days later, she also competed in the
5000 m event and finished fifth.
2023–present Letesenbet started the year with a win at the Jan Meda Cross Country held in
Sululta on 1 January, which doubled as Ethiopia's trial race for the February's
World Cross Country Championships in Australia. At the event, she led but faded in the home straight to be overtaken by
Beatrice Chebet just metres before the finish line. Letesenbet then stumbled and collapsed, and was eventually disqualified after requiring assistance. At the
2023 World Athletics Championships, Letesenbet won silver in the women's 10,000 metres. Later that year in November, she finished 2nd in the
2023 New York City Marathon, six seconds behind
Hellen Obiri. In 2024, after racing one 5000m race at a
Diamond League meeting in Suzhou, Letesenbet did not run at the Ethiopian 10,000 metres trial race and was not selected to the Ethiopian team for the
2024 Summer Olympics. In April 2025 she gave birth to a son. ==Achievements==