Abadi Hadis

Abadi Haddis made his major international track début for Ethiopia at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where he placed 15th among 34 entrants in the 10,000 metres. That year, he was the fastest man under the age of 20 in that event, as well as the 5,000 metres, and had the ninth and fifth best times for those events respectively overall. In 2017 he won his only major international medal, bronze, in the senior men’s race (just shy of 10 kilometers) at the 2017 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, and also placed seventh in the 10,000 metres at the World Championships in Athletics. The following year, he recorded a sub-13 minute time in the 5000 metres and a sub-59 minute time in the half-marathon, ranking him fifth in the 2018 list for those events, and making him one of only five men to have accomplished those feats and a sub-27 minute time in the 10,000 metres.

Haddis looked to be a strong prospect for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In 2019, despite coming in 27th in the 5,000 metres at the World Championships and 7th in the Africa Games in the 10,000 metres, his times over the season ranked him third in the half marathon, fifth in the 5,000 metres, and ninth in the 10,000 metres. Shortly thereafter, unfortunately, he came down with an illness from which he never recovered and he died in February 2020, at the age of only 22.