Hope for Africa
In the 10,000m final at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Elana Meyer of South Africa pulled away from the field after 6,100m and only Tulu was able to keep pace with her.
Meyer tried to force Tulu to pass her, but Tulu refused. Finally, just before the start of the last lap, Tulu darted into the lead and went on to win by 30 metres.
Tulu waited for Meyer at the finish line, and then Tulu, the first black African woman to earn an Olympic medal, and Meyer, a white South African, set off hand in hand for a victory lap that symbolized hope for a new Africa.
Tulu’s win reverberated even further. To many, she represented an embodied sense of global racial justice, defeating a White South African rival and cementing Ethiopia as a global powerhouse in running — and no longer just on the men’s side.
Winning Big
Tulu returned to the Olympics in 1996, but finished a disappointing fourth. However, her running career was far from over. At the 2000 Sydney Games, Tulu again entered the 10,000m.
Regaining her form of eight years earlier, she took the lead at the bell signalling the final lap and sprinted ahead to a clear victory over teammate Gete Wami.
Tulu became the first woman to win two gold medals in Olympic distance races. At the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, she won the bronze medal in the 10,000m.
History in Barcelona
A member of the Oromo ethnic group, Derartu Tulu grew up tending cattle in the Arsi highlands of Ethiopia. She did not realize that she was an unusually fast runner until she was 16 years old.
Although there was expectation that the 1992 Olympics would see the first African female gold medalist, it was not Tulu who was linked with it. Instead, road race star Elena Meyer was the pre-race favourite along with Britain’s Liz McColgan.
McColgan led for most of the race before Meyer made her move with 9 laps to go. Tulu tracked Meyer and refused to pass her when Meyer urged her to take the lead. Finally, just before the last lap, Tulu surged ahead for a historic victory.
Tulu’s win inspired a generation of young Ethiopian women to pursue sports despite cultural barriers. Stories of her achievement motivated many female athletes to move to Addis Ababa and pursue running. Since 1992, an Ethiopian woman has won the Olympic 10,000m all but two times.
Tulu now serves as President of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, but her Olympic legacy lives on through the hundreds of young girls still training to follow in her footsteps 30 years later.
