Alemitu Heroye represented Ethiopia at the 2011 World Youth Championships (3000 m), 2012 African Championships (5000 m) and 2012 African Cross Country Championships (junior race), placing in the top five every time but not winning medals. In 2013, she took bronze in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, losing to Kenya's Faith Kipyegon and Agnes Jebet Tirop by six seconds; she debuted in the IAAF Diamond League later that year, running the 5000 m in both Shanghai and Paris. She placed second behind Tirop in the junior race at the 2014 African Cross Country Championships in Kampala.