The story
Born in Bekoji, the legendary highland town that produced his older brother, world-record holder and multiple Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele, Tariku carved his own legacy rather than living in a shadow.
His first major title was gold in the 3,000m at the 2008 World Indoor Championships in Valencia. He was already a two-time World Junior 5,000m champion (2004, 2006) with a junior cross-country bronze, an All-Africa Games silver medalist (2007), and he finished 6th in the 5,000m at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
His crowning achievement came at the 2012 London Olympics: bronze in the 10,000m (27:31.43) behind Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, finishing one second ahead of his own brother Kenenisa in one of the most memorable family duels in Olympic history.
He moved to the roads with wins at the Saint Silvestre Road Race (2011), the Giro di Castelbuono and San Silvestre Vallecana 10K (2012), and later to the marathon — runner-up at Chuncheon (2017) and Xiamen (2018), with a best of 2:09:30 in Seoul.