T&FN's Men's Athlete Of The Decade: Kenenisa Bekele

Mountain View, California
January 29, 2010

Every 10 years Track & Field News, "The Bible Of The Sport," names its Athletes Of The Decade. The No. 1 men's choice of the Noughties (or Oughts, whatever you'd like!) was Ethiopian distance legend Kenenisa Bekele. See the now-on-sale March issue of T&FN for a long interview with the diminutive superstar and many other exciting features.

While the editors based their choices on overall impact in the decade, they also stressed quality over quantity.

The decade's top 10 men:

•1. Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia), distances

•2. Virgilijus Alekna (Lithuania), discus

•3. Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco), 1500/mile/5000

•4. Usain Bolt (Jamaica), sprints

•5. Robert Korzeniowski (Poland), walks

•6. Jeremy Wariner (USA), 400

•7. Dwight Phillips (USA), long jump

•8. Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway), javelin

•9. Roman Šebrle (Czech Republic), decathlon

•10. Saïf Shaheen (Qatar), steeplechase

©Track & Field News 2010