Sports in Ethiopia:

Ethiopian athletes first participated at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne Australia. The team however did not make their mark and finished the games without a medal. This nevertheless changed in the following games. Ethiopia won its first medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy when Abebe Bakele won the gold in the men’s marathon. He repeated the same feat at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo.

Since then, Ethiopia has been churning out world class athletes who have dominated continental and world competitions, breaking world records and setting the mark in long distance races. Famous athletes in recent years include; the legendary Haile Gebrselassie, Derartu Tulu, Gete Wami and Kenenisa Bekele.