The story
Aselefech Mergia began professional road racing in 2006 and rose with remarkable speed: Plymouth Half Marathon winner (2007), silver at the 2008 World Half Marathon Championships, and Delhi Half Marathon winner (2008, 2010).
She debuted in the marathon with second place in Paris in 2009 (2:25:02), won the World 10K in Bangalore, then took bronze in the women's marathon at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin (2:25:32). She is a three-time Dubai Marathon champion — 2011, 2012 in a personal best of 2:19:31, a former Ethiopian national record that placed her among the ten fastest women in history, and 2015.
She was retrospectively confirmed as the winner of the 2010 London Marathon (2:22:38) after the top two finishers were disqualified, making her a World Marathon Major champion.
After a maternity break — her daughter Sena was born in July 2013 — she roared back to win Dubai in 2015 just 18 months later, one of the great comeback stories in the sport.