{"id":12824,"date":"2024-08-08T13:47:06","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T13:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=12824"},"modified":"2026-02-01T14:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T14:09:10","slug":"how-ethiopias-olympic-hopes-have-been-hurt-by-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/12824\/how-ethiopias-olympic-hopes-have-been-hurt-by-war\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ethiopia’s Olympic hopes\u00a0have been hurt by war"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Girmay Gebru<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Redae Gebreyesus could have been representing Ethiopia at the Paris Olympics, but his life was cut short by civil war.<\/p>\n

The talented middle-distance runner was killed in late 2020, not long after the conflict in Tigray broke out in November of that year.<\/p>\n

Tigray, the East African nation’s northernmost state, has always been a vital part of Ethiopian athletics, with a third of the country’s track team currently competing in the French capital hailing from the region.<\/p>\n

According to his coach, Gebreyesus had the potential to be part of that squad – had it not been for the bloody two-year battle between Ethiopia\u2019s government and forces in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cRedae, without any doubt, wouldn\u2019t have just been selected but he could have won medals,\u201d Getye Mekuria told BBC Tigrinya.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could have been better than the rest of the athletes. His death is considered as Ethiopia losing one eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fighting ended when the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front signed a peace deal brokered by the African Union in November 2022.<\/p>\n

But a study by Ghent University estimates that up to 600,000 people have died because of the war, with over two million displaced and nearly 900,000 forced to flee as refugees.<\/p>\n

In the town of Edaga Arbi, some 25km from the border with Eritrea, Gebreyesus\u2019 mother still mourns the loss of her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lost everything,\u201d said Hadera Seyum from her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I have his children. Had he had no children, I would have considered myself as having nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A potential ‘icon’<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\n
\n

Gebreyesus trained at Tigray\u2019s main athletics facility in Maychew and won medals competing across the region.<\/p>\n

He was inspired by Hagos Gebrhiwet and Letesenbet Gidey, fellow athletes from the region who have won bronze medals at the Olympics over 5,000m and 10,000m respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember he started (training) in 2006,\u201d said his teary-eyed mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would run right after school before he came home. He\u2019d also wake up early in the morning to train.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he would reach the highest level. He promised he would change his family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gebreyesus, described as a respectful family man who worked in construction and could craft pieces of farming equipment out of metal, was at home when soldiers attacked his village on 19 November 2020.<\/p>\n

As his mother and sister ran away, he stayed behind to help the Tigrayan forces defend their land.<\/p>\n

That was the last time his family saw him.<\/p>\n

Gebreyesus\u2019 widow, who met her husband through athletics before they were even teenagers, now cares for their children and her mother-in-law.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe would have been an icon to his country,\u201d said Timnit Aregawi.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was brave, not only for his family. He means everything to me.<\/p>\n

“I am almost not alive after his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m exposed to disease and problems. I\u2019m psychologically damaged, I\u2019m traumatised.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Military casualties<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

The fighting may have ended more than 20 months ago but the emotional and physical impact of the Tigray war, which caused famine-like conditions, is still clear across the region.<\/p>\n

Like every part of life, sport was affected, with $1.7m (\u00a31.35m) worth of damage estimated to have been done to training facilities.<\/p>\n

The head of the state\u2019s athletics body says the conflict has claimed the lives of around 100 athletes, coaches and administrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of them would have reached international competitions,\u201d Kidane Teklehaymanot told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey could have been a source of economy for their families and their country.”<\/p>\n

Teenager Belaynesh Yaya was another athlete who had a bright future on the track.<\/p>\n

Her brother Habtamu Yaya described athletics as a “culture” in their district, Endamekoni, explaining that Belaynesh “learned it from her ancestors”.<\/p>\n

\u201cI strongly believed she could represent her country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would have made the team for the Olympics this year. My dream was to see her in international races.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old hoped to emulate Ethiopian Olympic champions Meseret Defar and Haile Gebrselassie, but reality sent her in a different direction.<\/p>\n

Needing money before the conflict broke out, she joined the regional military – against her father\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not happy,\u201d said Yaya Gebresamuel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow could a father allow his child to enter into a fire? I strongly preferred to see her in athletics than the military.\u201d<\/p>\n

She was involved in fighting around her family\u2019s home village and told her father that friends of hers had died.<\/p>\n

\u201cI insisted on pulling her out but she\u2019d rather die than retreat,\u201d Gebresamuel recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the family begged her but yet she refused.\u201d<\/p>\n

The runner was eventually killed fighting alongside the Tigrayan forces.<\/p>\n

Her family are yet to see her burial site.<\/p>\n

\n

Back on track<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Like Gebreyesus, coach Mekuria also trained Belaynesh Yaya in Maychew.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was like my daughter. She was disciplined, she was innocent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were training intensively day and night. They were hard-working.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not expecting war and not thinking they\u2019d join the military.\u201c<\/p>\n

Maychew\u2019s track has helped produce Olympic medal winners for Ethiopia, stars like\u00a0Gudaf Tsegay,<\/a>\u00a0who took bronze in the 5,000m at the 2020 Tokyo Games and is the reigning 10,000m world champion.<\/p>\n

Tigray\u2019s next generation of athletes are back training in Maychew, despite the dilapidated condition of some of the facilities.<\/p>\n

Huge cracks run along the walls of the training centre and plaster has dropped off many surfaces.<\/p>\n

One of the hopefuls who has returned, Fikr Solomon, remembers better days and his friend Redae.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat made Redae unique was when we woke up early in the morning he started our day with jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the long-term impact on Ethiopian athletics remains uncertain, there is no doubting the human cost of the war in Tigray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fighting may have ended more than 20 months ago but the emotional and physical impact of the Tigray war, which caused famine-like conditions, is still clear across the region.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":309,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"BBC","source_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/olympics\/articles\/c8rxxnn56jro","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"0","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,29],"tags":[114,2911,2910,534,51],"class_list":["post-12824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-reports","category-east-africa","tag-ethiopia","tag-paris-olympics","tag-redae-gebreyesus","tag-tigray","tag-tigray-crisis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12824"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19567,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12824\/revisions\/19567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}