Derartu Tulu

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Derartu Tulu

Derartu in 2019
Personal information
Native name	Daraartuu Tulluu ደራርቱ ቱሉ
Born	(1972-03-21) 21 March 1972 (age 52) Bekoji, Arsi Province, Ethiopian Empire (now Oromia Region, Ethiopia)
Years active	1990–2011
Height	1.56 m (5 ft 1 in)
Weight	44 kg (97 lb)
Sport
Country	Ethiopia
Sport	Athletics
Event	10,000 metres
Achievements and titles
Personal bests	3000 metres: 8:46.32(Portland, 2000) 5000 metres: 14:44.22(Brussels, 2003) 10,000 metres: 30:17.49(Sydney, 2000) Road 5 km: 15:08 (London, 2004) 10 km: 31:40 (Milan, 2000) Half marathon: 1:08:26 (Remich, 1995) (also 1:07:03 not legal) Marathon: 2:23:30 (Helsinki, 2005)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Ethiopia Olympic Games 1992 Barcelona 10,000 m 2000 Sydney 10,000 m 2004 Athens 10,000 m World Championships 2001 Edmonton 10,000 m 1995 Gothenburg 10,000 m World Cross Country Championships 1995 Durham Senior race 1997 Turin Senior race 2000 Vilamoura Senior race
President of Ethiopian Athletic Federation
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 November 2018
Preceded by	Haile Gebrselassie

Derartu is the first Ethiopian woman and the first African woman to win an Olympic gold medal. She won 10,000 metres titles at the 1992 Barcelona and 2000 Sydney Olympics, and a bronze in the event at the 2004 Athens Olympics. At the World Championships in Athletics, Derartu took silver in the 10,000 m in 1995, and a gold in 2001. She was a three-time IAAF World Cross Country champion (1995, 1997, 2000).

She has been serving as President of Ethiopian Athletics Federation since 2018.

Derartu comes from a sporting family of several Olympic medalists, which include her nieces Tirunesh, Genzebe and Ejegayehu Dibaba.

Derartu Tulu grew up tending cattle in the village of Bekoji in the highlands of Arsi Province, the same village as Kenenisa Bekele. She is the cousin of Ejegayehu Dibaba, Tirunesh Dibaba and Genzebe Dibaba.

Derartu is the first Ethiopian woman and the first African woman to win an Olympic gold medal, which she won in the 10,000 m event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. The race, where she and Elana Meyer (South Africa) raced for lap after lap way ahead of the rest of the field, launched her career. She sat out 1993 and 1994 with a knee injury and returned to competition in the 1995 IAAF World Cross Country Championships where she won gold, having arrived at the race only an hour before the start. She was stuck in Athens airport without sleep for 24 hours. The same year she lost out to Fernanda Ribeiro and won silver at the World Championships 10,000.

The 1996 season was a difficult year for her. At the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Derartu lost her shoe in the race and had to fight back to get fourth place. She also finished fourth at the Olympic Games, where she was nursing an injury. In 1997 she won the world cross country title for the second time, but did not factor in the 10,000 m World Championships. In 1998 she gave birth to a daughter, Tsion, but came back in 2000 in the best shape of her life. She won the 10,000 m Olympic gold for the second time (the only woman to have done this in the short history of the event). She also won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships title for the third time. In 2001, she finally won her world 10,000 track title in Edmonton. This was her third world or Olympic gold medal. She has a total of 5 world and Olympic medals.

Her transition to the marathon was rewarded with victories in London and Tokyo Marathons in 2001. She finished fourth at the 2005 World Championships, setting her personal best time of 2:23:30. She also won the Portugal Half Marathon in 2000 and 2003, and Lisbon Half Marathon in 2003. In 2009, at the age of 37, she won the New York City Marathon, defeating of the likes of Paula Radcliffe, Lyudmila Petrova and Salina Kosgei.

In 2004 Derartu declined to enter the New York Marathon, where she would have been likely to face marathon World Record holder Paula Radcliffe, whom she has had a great rivalry with over the years, and focused instead on the Olympic Games, where she won the bronze medal in the 10,000 m behind Xing Huina and her cousin Ejegayehu Dibaba. (Radcliffe failed to finish.)

Derartu continued to run competitively in her late thirties, while most of her old rivals retired. Her last marathon finish came in 2011 in Yokohama.

She is remembered for her speed and her 60.3 second-last lap at the end of the 10,000 m at the Sydney Olympics was a sprint of note.

She has been the president of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) since 14 November 2018.

International competitions

Representing   Ethiopia

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Time
1989	World Cross Country Championships	Stavanger, Norway	23rd	Senior woman	23:29
1990	World Cross Country Championships	Aix-les-Bains, France	15th	Senior woman	19:53
	African Championships	Cairo, Egypt	1st	3000 m	9:11.21
			1st	10,000 m	33:37.82
	World Junior Championships	Plovdiv, Bulgaria	1st	10,000 m	32:56.26
1991	World Cross Country Championships	Antwerp, Belgium	2nd	Senior woman	20:27
	World Championships	Tokyo, Japan	21st (h)	3000 m	9:01.04
			8th	10,000 m	32:16.55
1992	African Championships	Belle Vue Harel, Mauritius	1st	3000 m	9:01.12
			1st	10,000 m	31:32.25
	World Cup	Havana, Cuba	1st	3000 m	9:05.89
			1st	10,000 m	33:38.97
	Olympic Games	Barcelona, Spain	1st	10,000 m	31:06.02
1995	World Cross Country Championships	Durham, United Kingdom	1st	Senior woman	20:21
	World Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	2nd	10,000 m	31:08.10
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta, GA, United States	4th	10,000 m	31:10.46
1997	World Cross Country Championships	Turin, Italy	1st	Senior woman	20:53
	World Championships	Athens, Greece	24th (h)	10,000 m	33:25.99
1999	World Half Marathon Championships	Palermo, Italy	14th	Half marathon	1:11:33
2000	World Cross Country Championships	Vilamoura, Portugal	1st	Senior woman	25:42
	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	1st	10,000 m	30:17.49 OR
2001	London Marathon	London, United Kingdom	1st	Marathon	2:23:57
	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	1st	10,000 m	31:48.81
	Tokyo International Women's Marathon	Tokyo, Japan	1st	Marathon	2:25:08
2003	World Athletics Final	Monte Carlo, Monaco	2nd	5000 m	14:56.93
2004	World Cross Country Championships	Brussels, Belgium	16th	Senior woman	28:39
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	3rd	10,000 m	30:26.42 SB
2005	World Half Marathon Championships	Edmonton, Canada	15th	Half marathon	1:12:12
	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	4th	Marathon	2:23:30 PB
2009	New York Marathon	New York, NY, United States	1st	Marathon	2:28:52

Tulu is the aunt of the Dibaba siblings – Ejegayehu, Tirunesh and Genzebe Dibaba.

Tulu was named to the BBC's 100 Women programme in 2017.

•   Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette (2023)