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Eritrea at the Olympics bagged the country’s first bronze medal in the year 2004. The Summer Olympics were held at Athens. In it’s13 years of independence, the country participated only twice in the Olympics. The Eritrean player Zersenay Tadesse won the bronze medal for men’s 10,000 meters event.
Tadesse belongs to the provincial town of Mandefera. Winning the medal was his greatest achievement. He gave a tough competition to Sileshi Sihine and Kenenisa Bekele who belonged to Ethiopia. The news of his victory spread far across the country with a population of 4.4 million people. This was exciting news to the people who were more accustomed to hearing the strained relations with Ethiopia.
In the year 2000, for the first time Eritrea took part in the summer Olympics held at Sydney, Australia. An Eritrean runner named Yonas Kifle participated in the Olympics. He is known mainly for cross-country running, 10,000 meters and half marathon. Other athletes who took part in the Olympics were Bolota Asmerom and Nebiat Habtemariam. Mebrahtom Keflezighi was born in Eritrea but became a US citizen in 1998. In the 2004 Olympics and won silver medal for completing the race in two hours, eleven minutes and 29 seconds.
Eritrea at the Olympics was able to set a new record for covering the longest distance.
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