Elvan Abeylegesse (Hewan Abeye)
I am a big fan of Elvan AbeyLegesse. Along with Meseret Defar, Tirunesh Dibaba, and, Gelete Burika, I think she is one of the most phenomenal young middle/long distance runners of the time. Elvan made a name for herself when she set the 5000 meters world record to light two weeks after running 3:58:28 in the 1500 meters. This was an incredible performance considering the fact that many thought no one would even come close to it after the Chinese runner Jian Bo originally run the distance in the world record time of 14:28.09 (controversial circumstances). Not only Elvan broke it but she shaved a whapping 4 seconds off of it.
Elvan is extremely unpopular among many Ethiopians in Diaspora as well as in Ethiopia. It is remembered that the Ethiopian federation went as far as banned her from training in Addis prior to the Athens Olympics (even though her whole family resides there). Many Ethiopians view her choice to represent Turkey as unpatriotic.
I do not think Elvan is a traitor or unpatriotic. In fact, I consider her rise to success to be an incredible source of pride. I think her story is an Ethiopian immigrant success story. I do not hold the belief that athletes have a special obligation to Ethiopia. She, as many of us in the Diaspora, made the most difficult choice of abandoning her homeland to seek for greener pastures that would give her better opportunities in life. In Elvan's case, it is perhaps this difficult choice that paved the way to her success.
The bouncy petite girl from Addis will always remain an Ethiopian. She never indicated otherwise. In the mean time, no matter who she represents competing in athletics, I will continue admiring and supporting her.
Here is a snippet of Elvan's bio
She was born as Hewan Abeye on September 11, 1982 in Addis Ababa. She began her career in running cross country. In 1999, Hewan started for the Ethiopian junior team at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Belfast. There, she was invited for a meeting in Istanbul. She liked it there very much so she stayed. "My track club in Turkey gave me all the support I needed. So I decided to move to Turkey. The support was much better in Istanbul. I thought it would be easier to reach my goals in Turkey."
Personal best time:
Discipline Performance Place Date
1500m 3:58:28 Moscow, Russia May 30, 2004
2000m 5:33:83 Istanbul, Turkey June 7, 2003
3000m 8:31:94 Brussels, Belgium August 30, 2002
5000m 14:24:68 Bergen, Norway June 11, 2004 world record
10000m 32:29:20 Tunis, Tunisia September 12, 2001
