Why they rank here
Bekele has a claim as the most complete distance runner ever measured. His world records of 12:37.35 for 5000m (2004) and 26:17.53 for 10,000m (2005) stood for roughly fifteen years, only falling in the super-shoe era. He won three Olympic golds — the 10,000m in 2004 and both the 5000m and 10,000m in 2008 — and five world track titles. On the country, he was untouchable: eleven World Cross Country titles between 2002 and 2008, winning the long and short course double in five straight years, a stretch of dominance over the sport's hardest terrain that no one else approaches. Late in his career he ran 2:01:41 in Berlin, at the time the second-fastest marathon in history, two seconds off the world record. Track, cross country and roads — Bekele reached the summit of all three, which almost no distance runner has done.
Career profile
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