The women's

10,000 metres The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The ra ...

at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 15 August at the Beijing National Stadium. The race was won by

Tirunesh Dibaba Tirunesh Dibaba ( om, Xirunesh Dibaabaa, Amharic: ጥሩነሽ ዲባባ ቀነኒ; born 1 June 1985) is an Ethiopian athlete who competed in long-distance track events and international road races. She has won three Olympic track gold medal ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

, who set a new Olympic record time of 29:54.66. The qualifying standards were 31:45.00 (A standard) and 32:20.00 (B standard). The early part of the race was dominated by

Lornah Kiplagat Lornah Kiplagat (born 1 May 1974) is a Dutch professional long-distance runner. She was born in Kabiemit, Rift Valley Province, Kenya and came to the Netherlands in 1999. She gained Dutch citizenship in 2003 and has competed for the Netherlan ...

. But in the second half of the race, the contenders moved to the front, dominated by Elvan Abeylegesse, with the string of runners lined up behind her. Abeylegesse separated herself from the rest of the field, except for

, who marked her every step. Midway through the last lap, Dibaba pounced with a

kick A kick is a physical Strike (attack), strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee (strike), ...

Abeylegesse couldn't answer. Almost a half a minute back,

Shalane Flanagan Shalane Grace Flanagan (born July 8, 1981) is an American long-distance runner, Olympic medalist and New York City Marathon champion. She was the first American woman to win the New York City Marathon since 1977. She holds the NACAC area reco ...

was the best of the rest for bronze, with Linet Chepkwemoi Masai setting the World junior record a few steps behind her. At the time Dibaba and Abeylegesse ran the second and third fastest of all time (the best having occurred also in Beijing, Junxia Wang's world record in 1993). A year after this race, Meselech Melkamu edged past these two for the second best of all time. On 29 March 2017, IAAF confirmed that Abeylegesse had tested positive for a banned substance at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics, and that her results from 2007 to 2009, including her Olympic silvers, had been expunged.IAAF March 2017 Newsletter
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Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows: The following new Olympic record was set during this competition. Both

and Elvan Abeylegesse completed the race in a time under the old Olympic record, recording the second and third fastest ever women's 10,000 metre times, making Dibaba the new Olympic record holder.

Results

Splits

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's 10,000 metres Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics 10,000 metres at the Olympics 2008 in women's athletics Women's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics