Tigst Assefa

Tigst Assefa Tessema (Amharic: ትእግስት አሰፋ; Oromo: Tigist Asaffaa Tasammaa; born 3 December 1996) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner and the former world record holder in the women's marathon. She has won two top-tier World Marathon Majors, both in Berlin. A former 800 meters specialist, Tigst switched to road races in 2018 and ran her first marathon in 2022.
At the age of 16, she won the bronze medal in the 800 meters at the 2013 African Junior Championships. She finished fourth at the senior African Championships the following year, and then represented Ethiopia in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics aged 19. Tigst ran then the third-fastest female marathon in history at the 2022 Berlin Marathon and obliterated the world record by 2 minutes and 11 seconds at the 2023 Berlin Marathon, on 24 September, with a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds, becoming the first woman to break the 2:14, 2:13, and 2:12 barriers in a marathon. Her world record has since been broken by Ruth Chepng'etich, who ran 2 hours 9 minutes and 56 seconds at the 2024 Chicago Marathon on 13 October.
According to Tigst Assefa's World Athletics profile, at the age of 12, she won the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2009 senior Ethiopian Athletics Championships, stopping the clock at 56.70 seconds. She gained her first international experience in January 2012, in France, where she competed for the first time in the 800 metres, although failing to finish. The 15-year-old represented that year Ethiopia in the 400 m at the senior African Championships in Athletics in Porto-Novo, Benin, setting a new personal best in the heats with a time of 54.05 s.
After 2012, she has never raced a non-relay 400 m again, shifting to twice the distance. In 2013, aged 16, Tigst became Ethiopian junior champion, clocked a personal best of 2:01.25 in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and earned bronze at the African Junior Championships held in Réduit, Mauritius, where she also added silver for the 4 × 400 m relay. The following year, she ran a lifetime best of 1:59.24 at the Lausanne Diamond League, again in Switzerland, finished fourth at the African Championships in Marrakesh, Morocco, won the ISTAF Berlin meet in Germany, and placed fourth at the IAAF Continental Cup staged also in Marrakesh. She competed in only two races in 2015.
In 2016, still 19, Tigst represented Ethiopia in the 800 metres at the World Indoor Championships held in Portland, United States and at the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil, although failing to advance past preliminary rounds both in the first and second event; she won the race at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix meet in Japan in between.
After 2016, she never raced on the track again as an ongoing Achilles tendon injury prevented her from training in spikes. After a two-year break, in November 2018, the then 21-year-old debuted on the roads, racing the 10 km in Dubai for a time of 34:35. Tigst improved by almost three minutes (31:45) in Germany the following year, when she also debuted in the half marathon at the Valencia Half Marathon in Spain, finishing fifth in 68:24.
In March, after a two-year hiatus due to a career-threatening injury sustained in 2019 in Valencia and also the COVID-19 pandemic, the 25-year-old debuted in the marathon distance at the inaugural Riyadh Marathon in Saudi Arabia's capital, finishing seventh with a time of 2:34:01. She was eight kilograms overweight and not race fit. She then participated in races until June, competing in three 10 km events and two half marathons, winning all of them and setting new personal bests (30:52 in Langueux, France and 67:28 at the adizero Road to Records event in Herzogenaurach, Germany, respectively).
Tigst set the then third-fastest female performance in history at the Berlin Marathon in September. She stopped the clock at two hours 15 minutes 37 seconds, her winning time slower only than 2:14:04 of world record-holder Brigid Kosgei and 2:15:25 of former record-holder Paula Radcliffe, an over 18 minutes improvement of her personal best. Running with a negative split, after the 68:13 first half of the race, her second half of 67:24 was faster by 4 s than her then half marathon lifetime best. Thus she won by over two minutes, bettered a course record by more than two and a half minutes, and set an Ethiopian record. In December, she also won the Bahrain Royal Night Half Marathon in country's capital Manama.
On 24 September, wearing so-called super shoes, Tigst competed again at the Berlin Marathon and set a new female world record with a landmark time of two hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds, chopping two minutes and eleven seconds from Kenya's Brigid Kosgei's standard of 2:14:04 which had been set at the 2019 Chicago Marathon. Thus Tigst became the first woman to break the 2:14, 2:13 and 2:12 barriers in a marathon. She completed the first half of the race almost two minutes faster than the previous year with a time of 66:20, putting her on path to improve the world record by more than a minute. Yet racing with a negative split again, she was even almost a minute quicker in the final half, which was covered in 65:33. The Ethiopian ran her 38th kilometre only 3 seconds slower than the male winner, former world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, clocking 3:06 which was also her second half average pace, and closed with her last 2.195 km timed at 6:40 (3:02 min/km pace) to Kipchoge's 6:36. Tigst averaged 3:07.5 min/km pace for the full 42.195-kilometre distance and beat the runner-up by almost six minutes, with the assistance of the male pacemaker Girmay Birhanu Gebru for almost the entire race.
This was the first time that an Ethiopian woman broke the marathon world record. Tigst's time was faster than the old men's world best mark of her compatriot Abebe Bikila, who in 1960, running barefoot, became the first black African to win an Olympic marathon title and who set his best of 2:12:11 in 1964. Her time would have been the men's world record until December 1967.
On Sunday, 11 August, Tigst finished second in the marathon, with a time of 2:22:58, just 3 seconds behind the winner Sifan Hassan. In the final sprint, Tigst appeared to impede her opponent by drifting towards the barriers, resulting in a collision and causing both athletes to stumble. Hassan then passed Tigst and won the race by the narrowest margin in the history of women's olympic marathons. Afterwards, the Ethiopian team filed a protest to disqualify Hassan due to obstruction, which was rejected by the Jury of Appeal. At the post-race news conference, Tigst remarked (through a translator) "I didn’t expect at that moment it would happen. Maybe at that moment, if she didn’t push me I would have the gold."
Information from World Athletics profile.