Kenenisa Bekele Beyecha[4] (Oromo: Qananiisaa baqqalaa; Amharic: ቀነኒሳ በቀለ; born 13 June 1982) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner.

[6][7][8] Kenenisa Bekele was born in 1982 in Bekoji in the Arsi Zone of Oromia Region, the same town as several other prominent long-distance runners, including the Dibaba's Daughters (Ejegayehu, Tirunesh and Genzebe) and their cousin Derartu Tulu.

[9] Kenenisa was born the second child to parents who made a living as barley farmers, along with three brothers and two sisters.

[12] He began to train seriously in running with the encouragement of a physical education teacher, while drawing inspiration from the success of Derartu Tulu and Haile Gebrselassie.

Haile defeated Kenenisa on the track in the 2000 Nurnberg 5000 metres, the 2001 Great Ethiopian Run 10 km, and the Cross de l'Acier in December 2001, but lost to Kenenisa in Hengelo 2003 over 10,000 m (26:53 to 26:54), Rome 2003 over 5000 m (12:57 to 13:00), Paris 2003 World Championships over 10,000 m (26:49 to 26:50), Athens 2004 Olympic Games (27:05 to 27:27), in the 10,000 m in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (27:01 to 27:06), and in the Great North Run half marathon in September 2013 (60:09 to 60:41).

[20] On 4 January 2005, Kenenisa's fiancée, 18-year-old Alem Techale, died of an apparent heart attack while on a training run with him.

In March, Kenenisa lined up to defend his long and short course titles at the 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

He won on the short course despite a fast pace set by Qatari Saif Saaeed Shaheen, and followed that win with a long course victory the next day over Eritrean Zersenay Tadese and Kenyan rival Eliud Kipchoge.

[28] On 24 March 2007, however, his streak of 27 consecutive victories in cross country races (dating back to his last previous loss in December 2001) came to an end when after leading the race in the penultimate lap of the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa he succumbed to the very hot, humid conditions (which caused more than 1/6 of all competitors to drop out) and was passed by eventual winner Zersenay Tadese on the last lap before Kenenisa dropped out.

[29] He recovered from that rare failure to take the 10,000-metre title at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, once again besting his compatriot Sileshi Sihine.

[30] In Edinburgh on 30 March 2008, he won his sixth World Cross Country title (long course – 12k), breaking the three-way tie of 5 wins he had previously shared with Paul Tergat and John Ngugi.

With this win, Kenenisa laid sole claim to most decorated athlete in IAAF World Cross Country Championships history.

[32] On 23 August 2008 Kenenisa bested his competitors and won the 5000-metre finals, shattering Saïd Aouita's Olympic Record by almost eight seconds with a time of 12:57.82.

[33] By winning the 10,000/5000m double in the Beijing Olympics, Kenenisa joined another elite group of athletes: Hannes Kolehmainen (1912), Emil Zátopek (1952), Vladimir Kuts (1956), Lasse Virén (twice, in 1972 and 1976) and Miruts Yifter (1980).

Fellow world record holder Usain Bolt stated that Kenenisa Bekele's achievements had not received the recognition that they deserved.

[37] Kenenisa made a disappointing start to 2010, finishing fourth in the Edinburgh Cross Country in a race he was favored to win – a trio of Kenyan athletes ran him out of the contest over the final lap.

[41] Kenenisa decided not to run the 5000 m and[42] returned to the Diamond League at the Ivo Van Damme Memorial in Brussels where he set the fastest time in the world for the 10,000 metres in 2011.

[45] In April, he appeared to have returned to form by winning the Great Ireland Run in a new personal best time for a 10 km road race of 27:49, improving the course record by 46 seconds.

[53] On 19 January 2017, attempting to break the world record, Kenenisa dropped out of the Dubai Marathon after the half way mark due to a fall at the beginning of the race.

[55] Kenenisa's outstanding track career led to his involvement in a project to break the two-hour barrier for the marathon, though a number of factors undermined this effort.

[2] The next month, Kenenisa competed in the 2022 London Marathon, finishing fifth in 2:05:53 to set a masters world record in age 40 group.

Then, in October, he announced on Instagram that he had departed from the NN running team and transitioned his sponsorship from Nike to Anta, a Chinese sports brand.

Although he fell behind the leading group before reaching the 15 km mark, he managed to finish fourth in a M40 Master World Record with a time of 2:04:19.