A world junior 800 metres champion and an All-Africa Games silver medalist, he died in the United States not long after these achievements.

[5] In August he got an offer of a scholarship to Wayland Baptist in Texas and spent a week on campus before deciding to decline, due to the lack of a large Ethiopian community, like there was at Riverside.

[5] Asgedom was killed when on 1 September 1992 he was struck by a pickup truck driver while out running on Washington Boulevard in Pico Rivera, California.

[5] The truck driver said that Asgedom had been standing facing traffic waiting to cross and made eye contact before he dove in front of the incoming vehicle.

[5] His coach, Ted Banks, described Asgedom as a "tremendous runner" who with some more experience "had the potential to be an Olympic medal winner".