Talk:Kenenisa Bekele

Picture Caption
Sentence in question: "Bekele followed by Abraham Chebii and his brother Tariku at the XXV Cross Internacional de Itálica" should possibly be edited. Chebii's brother, or Bekele's? The pronoun in unclear.

NPOV
Removed: These claims must be disattributed and presented as the views only of those attributed. the Additionally, counterclaims should be presented. 119 06:27, 13 Dec 2004 (UTC) he is a pimp
 * Only 22, he is widely acknowledged as the best young distance runner in the world.
 * He is considered the heir to Haile Gebrselassie, widely considered to be the best distance runner in the history of mankind.
 * ...Haile Gebrselassie who looked past his best...

Added: Mention of world records in first sentence. Reason: An introductory statement about Kenenisa Bekele should explain why he is notable. The POV comments described above seem to have been motivated by the previously lackluster opening of the article. It is POV to state that he is the "best young distance runner in the world," but it is relevant and impartial to note that he has run the fastest races ever.

Not sure where to put this, but this sentence just seems kind of non-encyclopedic "And while this victory was just one step toward healing his broken spirit, it is among the greatest emotional and physical triumphs in Athletics history." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Diddyeinstein (talk • contribs) 17:32, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

World Cross Country Championships Medals
Bekele's medals from the World Cross Country Championships should be included in his medal record on the top right-hand corner of the page.

Three points
I'm too tired to trust myself to edit, so I'll quickly mention these:


 * 1) Steve Cram on the BBC commentary mentioned repeatedly that Bekele is unbeaten over 10,000m. If this is indeed true, it should be mentioned.
 * 2) Both "metres" and "meters" are used in the article. They should all be "metres", as that form predominates and was used first.
 * 3) Bekele should be referred as such throughout, not as simply "Kenenisa" as he is more than once in the "2005 - 2008" section.

86.132.143.188 (talk) 03:31, 18 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Steve Cram notwithstanding, the article itself states that "Gebrselassie defeated Bekele on ... the 2001 Great Ethiopian Run 10 km." So I am being bold and adding the caveat "Since 2003," for his "undefeated" status. -Eliyahu S Talk 10:31, 27 December 2009 (UTC)
 * 10,000 m is a track event, while 10 km is a road event - not the same. GregorB (talk) 02:12, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

Vital Stats
Are stats like height, age and weight not typically put in the top right summary box for runners? — Preceding unsigned comment added by BMAH07 (talk • contribs) 13:06, 15 February 2011 (UTC)

Ethiopian Proper Names
The norm for Ethiopian names is for the given name to be the proper name. The father's name follows, and when a full name is written, the grandfather's (given) name is added. There is no surname as such. Therefore when one refers to "Bekele", one is talking about Kenenisa's father, not Kenenisa Bekele. It is always appropriate to write Kenenisa or Kenenisa Bekele when referring to the subject.213.55.72.14 (talk) 07:25, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Since the English Wikipedia is a worldwide encyclopedia, we should stick to what is generally acceptable. It is obvious that in an article describing the career of Track & Field athlete Kenenisa Bekele, no confusion can arise about his identity, when in the following text he is referred to as 'Bekele'. In those cases any doubts could arise, one should add the first name, not replace the family name. Regards, Piet.Wijker (talk) 07:58, 8 June 2011 (UTC)
 * After being instructed by user SFB (see also my discussion page) I have come to the conclusion, that my former remark was incorrect in the case of Ethiopian surnames. Therefore I undid my earlier revert. Regards, Piet.Wijker (talk) 09:40, 9 June 2011 (UTC)

10k road race record
I have seen that Bekele's road race record for 10k was listed as 27:58 from Nijmegen (2008). Accordingly, I have replaced it with his time of 27:49 from Dublin (2011). However, I don't know if his previous record was correct (I realize he does not run many road races, but it seemed very slow by comparison, and it is not mentioned as a PB here: http://www.rte.ie/sport/athletics/2012/0415/317143-bekele/ ). TSawala (talk) 22:34, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

Bekele and Bikila
I have to admit some curiosity if the names Bekele and Bikila are related, like the given names Frederick and Frederich.

47.55.31.38 (talk) 21:41, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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Greatest distance runner of all time ?
The lead says "many consider him to be the greatest distance runner of all time". No doubt his achievements are amazing, but who are these "many"? The only source offered is Ryan Fan, a part-time writer on medium.com. Personally I don't think he qualifies as a WP:RS. The sentence should be removed, or at least toned down to something like, "it has been suggested that he is the greatest distance runner of all time", or better sources found. Adpete (talk) 04:32, 16 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Here is a far better ref . And this -- a readers' poll, but in a published magazine -- where he came third (behind Haile Gebrselassie and Emil Zatopek). Adpete (talk) 02:53, 17 August 2020 (UTC)