Sport
The town that makes champions
Bekoji has produced more Olympic medallists per capita than almost anywhere on earth. Altitude is only part of the answer.
7 min readTsion Alemu
Bekoji is a small town in the Arsi highlands at around 2,800 metres. Derartu Tulu, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba and Almaz Ayana all came from within a short radius of it.
Thin air is the explanation usually offered. But thin air is available across an entire plateau, and it does not by itself produce a pipeline of Olympic champions from one town.
The pipeline
- Children who run several kilometres to school as a matter of routine
- Local coaches who have trained generations and know what a twelve-year-old can carry
- Regional competitions that identify talent early and visibly
- A national club system in which running is a credible career
In Bekoji the children run to school. The best of them keep running.
Coaching tradition, Arsi highlands
Abebe Bikila's barefoot victory in Rome in 1960 gave that system its founding story. Sixty-five years later, the medals still arrive.
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