  the women's 10,000 metres was one of 23 track events of the athletics at the 2004 summer olympics, in athens. it was contested at the athens olympic stadium, on august 27, by a total of 31 athletes from 20 nations. no preliminary rounds were held at this distance, since the number of competitors allowed a direct final. like fernanda ribeiro in the 2000 summer olympics, defending champion derartu tulu was not able to maintain her title, finishing in the third place behind compatriot (and cousin) ejegayehu dibaba and the winner xing huina. in athens, ribeiro did not finish the race due to fatigue, along with british marathon world record holder paula radcliffe. throughout the race, xing marked the ethiopian favorites, not taking the lead until the final straightaway with a final kick dibabba could not match. xing's final lap was just under 63 seconds. ==qualification== the olympic qualification period for the athletics ran from january 1, 2003 to august 9, 2004. for this event, each national olympic committee (noc) was permitted to enter up to three athletes, provided they had run below 31:45.00 minutes during this period in iaaf-sanctioned meetings or tournaments. if a noc had no athletes qualified under this standard, it could enter up to one athlete that had run below 32:17.00 minutes. ==records== these are the standing world and olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 2004 summer olympics. {| class="wikitable" |- ! world record |29:31.78 | wang junxia |beijing (chn) |8 september 1993 |- ! olympic record |30:17.49 | derartu tulu |sydney (aus) |30 september 2000 |} ==results== all times shown are in minutes. the following abbreviations are used: * dnf denotes "did not finish" * nr denotes "national record" * pb denotes "personal best" * sb denotes "season best" the final was held on august 27. {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- !rank !athlete !time ! |- | image:gold medal icon.svg ||align="left"|  || 30:24.36 || pb |- | image:silver medal icon.svg ||align="left"|  || 30:24.98 || pb |- | [[image:bronze medal icon.s
10,000_metres_at_the_Olympics Athletics_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics