Tirunesh Dibaba

"I have been dreaming of an outdoor world record for ever, now I want them all: the 1500, the 5000, even the 800."

"Everybody expects me to win the gold medal, I have to do it, especially after what my sister has achieved. I have to do the same, if not better."

"I wanted to train more for the outdoor season than the indoor season, so I changed my training totally, I already have natural speed which I don’t need to work on, so in training I’ve been working more on my endurance. Now I think I can run faster outdoors than I previously thought I was capable of."

"Most of the girls can’t stay with me in training, it just has to be guys."

"I never needed to run to school because it was close to home, I never did much running in school. Unlike other Ethiopian runners, I did not have a running childhood."

"This year has been fantastic, and the big bonus is the marriage on top of the Olympics."

"I won the 5k and 10k at the Olympics and would hope I have done enough to win the athlete of the year."

"I want to improve the records for both distances and the hardest to achieve is the 10k"

"I have never been happier"

"I was not even happy in Beijing.No one has ever done what I did today"

"We have a good coach, who has helped us very much with our training. The coach’s wisdom and the technical activities we do in Bekoji have helped it to produce so many good athletes."

"There’s always a lot of competition, so whenever I win a race at that distance, I’m really thrilled."

"The passion hasn’t decreased"

"Running is in my blood and I still get the same feeling whenever I go out for training that I always have done. It’s always there."