Ebba Tulu Chala (born 22 June 1996)[1] is a Swedish athlete who competes in the marathon. He was born in Ethiopia and emigrated as a child.
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Born | 22 June 1996 |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Track and Field |
| Event | marathon |
| Club | Keep Up RC |
Early life edit
Chala is an Oromo from near Bekoji, where the altitude is between 2,500 and 3,000 metres.[2] and although he was not a runner, he walked between one and two hours each way to school. After his father was murdered by Tigre and he himself was imprisoned and tortured, his uncle smuggled him out of Ethiopia to Nairobi, from where he reached Sweden as an unaccompanied minor refugee in 2013; he does not know what happened to his mother and siblings. He found his way to refugee accommodation in Salem, near Stockholm, where he stayed for a year.[2] Two months after his arrival, at Sågbäcksgymnasiet, his school in Huddinge Municipality, he tried running and discovered he was very fast.[3]
Running career edit
Three weeks after his discovery, Chala was entered by his teacher in a 10,000 m race at Nacka, and came third with a time of 32.22.[3] Since 2015, he has won one bronze and four silver medals at the Swedish Athletics Championships,[1] his first for the marathon being silver in 2019.[4]
At the Seville Marathon in February 2020, he reached the international qualifying standard for the Summer Olympics as well as the World Athletics Championships with a personal best time of 2:11:18;[4][5] however, the Swedish Olympic standard is lower, at 2 hours, 11 minutes.[6] Sidelined by injuries after that, he returned to run the Stockholm Marathon in 2021 and in early 2022 trained in Ethiopia together with the Iranian-Swedish marathoner Mohammad Reza.[4] He was not selected for the 2021 Olympics.[7]
Initially threatened with deportation,[3] Chala became a naturalised Swedish citizen on 15 May 2022.[1]
References edit
- ^ a b c "Ebba Tulu Chala". Friidrottsstatistik.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ a b Åkeson, Claes (26 November 2016). "Från flykting till elit: RW möter Ebba Tulu Chala". Runner's World (in Swedish).
- ^ a b c Dickson, Staffan (29 October 2013) [24 September 2015]. "Löparlöftet kan utvisas". Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ a b c Nesi, Lorenzo (21 February 2022). "Ebba under VM-kvalgränsen i Sevilla". Marathon.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ Grip, Mikael (23 February 2020). "Svenskt maratonrekord av Mustafa Mohamed!". Spring: Löpning för alla (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ Nesi, Lorenzo (23 February 2020). "Hanna, Ebba och Micke så nära OS-gränsen". Marathon.se (in Swedish). Retrieved 8 August 2022.
- ^ Nesi, Lorenzo [@CoachLN] (2 July 2021). "The list of 17 qualified marathon runners who by various reasons will not participate at the #Olympics2021" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
External links edit
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