Meseret Defar (born November 19, 1983 in Addis
Ababa) is a female athlete from Ethiopia.
She won gold in the women's 5000 metres at the 2004
Summer Olympics in Athens with a time of 14:45.65.
She won a silver medal at the 2005 World
Championships in Helsinki, losing only to Tirunesh
Dibaba.
In 2006 she won the World Indoor Championships over
3000 metres, defending her title from the 2004 IAAF
World Indoor Championships.
On 3 June 2006 she ran the 5000 metres in New York
City in a then-world record time of 14:24.53 - the
record was again improved by her to 14:16.63 at the
Bislett Games in Oslo on 15 June 2007.
On 3 February 2007 she ran the 3000 metres Indoor in
Stuttgart (Germany) in a world record time of
8:23.72.
On 20 May 2007 she ran the 2 mile in Carson,
California in a world record time of 9:10.47.
In 2007 September 1, she won gold in 14:57.91 at
5000m at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, to
go along with her Olympic victory and current world
record.
In 2007 September 14, she set a world record
(8:58.58) in the women's 2-mile at the Van Damme
Memorial meet, shaving 11.89 seconds off the 9:10.47
mark she set in May at Carson, Calif.
Also in 2007, Defar won the female World Athlete of
the Year award.
In the Reebok Boston Indoor meeting of January 2008,
Defar ran a time of 9:10.50 in the 2-mile event to
establish a new 2-mile indoor world best time,
breaking the previous indoor best by over 12
seconds.
