Derartu Tulu
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Women's athletics | ||
Representing  Ethiopia
|
||
| Olympic Games | ||
 |
1992 Barcelona | 10,000 m |
|
2000 Sydney | 10,000 m |
 |
2004 Athens | 10,000 m |
| World Championships | ||
|
2001 Edmonton | 10,000 m |
 |
1995 Gothenburg | 10,000 m |
Derartu Tulu (Amharic: ደራርቱ ቱሉ; born March 21, 1972 in Bekoji, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner, who competed in track, cross country running, and road running up to the marathon distance.
Derartu (ዳራርቱ ቱሉ) grew up tending cattle in the village of Bekoji in the highlands of Arsi Province, the same village as Kenenisa Bekele.
Derartu is the first Ethiopian woman and the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal, which she won in the 10,000 m event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. The race, where she and Elana Meyer (South Africa) raced for lap after lap way ahead of the rest of the field, launched her career. She sat out 1993 and 1994 with a knee injury and returned to competition in the 1995 IAAF World Cross Country Championships where she won gold, having arrived at the race only an hour before the start. She was stuck in Athens airport without sleep for 24 hours. The same year she lost out to Fernanda Ribeiro and won silver at the World Championships 10,000.
The 1996 season was a difficult year for her. At the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Derartu lost her shoe in the race and had to fight back to get fourth place. She also finished fourth at the Olympic Games, where she was nursing an injury. In 1997 she won the world cross country title for the second time, but did not factor in the 10,000 m World Championships. In 1998 she gave birth to a daughter, Tsion, but came back in 2000 in the best shape of her life. She won the 10,000 m Olympic gold for the second time (the only woman to have done this in the short history of the event). She also won the IAAF World Cross Country Championships title for the third time. In 2001 she finally won her world 10,000 track title in Edmonton. This was her third world or Olympic gold medal. She has a total of 6 world and Olympic gold medals.
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