Tirunesh Dibaba participant in athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics
2016: Olympic bronze medalist in historic 10,000 metre race
Dibaba returned to the track in 2016 to qualify for and run in the 10,000 metres at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She did not compete in the 5000 metres at the Olympics for the first time since 2004.
On 29 June, Dibaba lost a 10,000 metres race for the first time in her career. Almaz Ayana won the Ethiopian Olympic Trials in Hengelo, Netherlands with the fastest time (30:07.00) since Meselech Melkamu's 29:53.8 finish time in June 2009, the seventh fastest time ever, and the fastest time ever for a 10,000 metres debut. Gelete Burka finished in second (30:28.47) with Dibaba in third (30:28.53).In perhaps the greatest 10,000 metres race of all time, Dibaba ran the fourth fastest time in history while winning the bronze medal. Her finish time of 29:42.56 was 12.1 seconds faster than her previous personal best of 29:54.66, which she set at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Teammate Almaz Ayana smashed Wang Junxia's 22 year old (and controversial) world record (29:31.78) by 14.33 seconds on her way to the gold medal in a time of 29:17.45. Silver medalist Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya came within 0.75 seconds of Wang's world record while running the third fastest time (29:32.53) in history. Fourth place finisher Alice Aprot Nawowuna of Kenya ran the fifth fastest time (29:53.51) in history. (She led the race for the first 5000 metres, reaching that mark in a very quick 14:46.81.) The next 9 finishers each set an area record (Molly Huddle of the U.S.), a national record (Cheruiyot of Kenya, Sarah Lahti of Sweden, Diane Nukuri of Burundi), or a personal best. National records for Greece, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan also were broken. Before this race, a woman had finished a 10,000 metres race in under 30 minutes only five times - but four did so in this race. Dibaba said after the race, "I had a short time after delivery. Fortunately I got bronze.... This is great for me, my family and all of Ethiopia. The bronze is for my son."
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