Delartu Tour: Running as a way of life
“I had to run to everything,” Tulu said, recalling his simple life growing up in the high-altitude village of Bekoji, southeast of Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.
“The market was far from the village, so we ran all the way. We had to run to get water. We had to run to pick up wood.”
In Bekoji, also known as the “Runner Town,” running around doing menial jobs was a typical way of life. But when Tur expressed an interest in continuing to run at school, his family opposed it. In her rural town, practicing sports was still considered the domain of men.
“Delartu was as brave as a man,” his mother said. yeshiwegi It was shared on the Olympic Channel series “Legends Live On”.
“She had a cow and was always running. In her youth she was like a tiger… Her brave heart led her to become a runner.”
Remarkably, its natural running terrain gave Tur the perfect trajectory to the top of the world. She won her 10,000 meters at the 1990 World U20 Championships, where she trained with the police team in Addis Ababa. This experience of hers was put to full use when she wore the uniform of her country's team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Tur and South Africa's Mayer were pre-race favorites to win and lived up to expectations. Mayer heroically controlled the last 25 laps of the race, but it was Tur's sprint in the closing stages that proved decisive.
