(28 July 1996; Day 9)
Ethiopia is well known for its men's success in Olympic marathoning, with Abebe BIKILA winning the gold medal in 1960 and 1964, and Mamo WOLDE following that with a win in 1968.
Now add the name of Fatuma ROBA to the Ethiopian list, after she ran away from a strong field to win the 1996 Olympic marathon with a time of 2:26:05. Her 2-minute gap over silver medalist Valentina YEGOROVA of Russia was the largest winning margin in Olympic women's marathoning history. Their performance is even more impressive considering the hilly and humid conditions in Atlanta.
ROBA becomes the first African to win the Olympic women's marathon, an event first contested in 1984 in Los Angeles. She was not considered among the favorites coming into the competition, despite a personal best of 2:29:05 this year and wins at the Marrakesh and Rome marathons.
But ROBA gained confidence as the race progressed, letting an experienced Uta PIPPIG (GER) do most of the early pace work before taking over at 20 kilometers. "At that point I was already sure that I would win because I had practiced very hard," said ROBA.
"Before the race I was afraid of the others with better times but soon I realized that they were not running fast today," said ROBA. "I picked up the speed and they did not follow."
African women are just coming into their own as distance runners, and look to become just as dominant as their male counterparts. In 10,000m qualifying Saturday night, all three Ethiopian entries advanced to the final, while earned spots in Sunday evening's 5000m final.
"This is not only a special thing for me, but also for my country and all African women," said ROBA. "This was a breakthrough and now we are ready to challenge the rest of the world."
This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Brett Ayers.
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| More tickets were sold to the competitions of the 1996 Games than to any other Olympic Games or sports event in history. The 8.6 million ticket sales figures topped sales to the Los Angeles and Barcelona Games combined. |