Abdi Bile

Abdi Bile is a former middle distance

Middle distance track event

Middle distance track events are track races longer than sprints up to 3000 metres.-Middle distance events:The standard middle distances are the 800 m, 1500 m, mile , and the 3000 m . In the United States, the 3000 m is more common at the high school and collegiate levels...

 runner from Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa...

. In 1987 he became world champion, the first Somali to do so.

Abdi Bile won the 1500m World Championship in 1987, running the final 800m of the race in 1:46.0, the fastest final 800m of any 1,500 meter race in history. He was a two-time Olympian (1984 and 1996) and dominated his event in the late 1980s. Bile was ranked first in the world in the one-mile in 1989.

Abdi Bile is a former middle distance

Middle distance track event

Middle distance track events are track races longer than sprints up to 3000 metres.-Middle distance events:The standard middle distances are the 800 m, 1500 m, mile , and the 3000 m . In the United States, the 3000 m is more common at the high school and collegiate levels...

 runner from Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, is a country located in the Horn of Africa...

. In 1987 he became world champion, the first Somali to do so.

Abdi Bile won the 1500m World Championship in 1987, running the final 800m of the race in 1:46.0, the fastest final 800m of any 1,500 meter race in history. He was a two-time Olympian (1984 and 1996) and dominated his event in the late 1980s. Bile was ranked first in the world in the one-mile in 1989. He was World Cup champion in the 1500m in 1989 and two-time world Grand Prix final champion.

Bile is a graduate of George Mason University with a BS in marketing management. At George Mason, Bile was team captain and a two-time NCAA Division I 1,500 meter champion, winning his first title in 1985 (3:41.2) and the second in 1987 (3:35.79). He also won many conference titles and held the inter-collegiate 1500m record for more than ten years. He was coached by John Cook, the former coach of 2008 Olympic 10000 meter Bronze Medalist Shalane Flanagan

Shalane Flanagan

Shalane Flanagan is an American distance runner, and currently holds the American record times in the 3000 m, 5000 m, and 10,000 m. She won the bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics in the 10,000 m....

. Bile has travelled widely and has inspired many young people and helped several humanitarian organizations.

.In the famous photo above he is shown with a pole with his training pants on the pole acting as a flag.
His career was riddled with injuries, and he missed the 1991 World Championships as well as the 1988 and 1992 Olympics because of such problems. In 1996 he finished 6th in the Olympic 1500m final.

• 800 metres - 1:43.60 (1989)
• 1000 metres - 2:14.50 (1989)
• 1500 metres - 3:30.55 (1989)
• One mile - 3:49.40 (1988)
• 3000 metres - 7:42.18 (1994)

Achievements

Year	Tournament	Venue	Result	Event
1987	World Championships 1987 World Championships in Athletics The 2nd World Championships in Athletics under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations were held in the Olympic Stadium in Rome, Italy between August 28 and September 6.-Track:1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995...	Rome Rome Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million... , Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...	1st	1,500 metres
1993	World Championships 1993 World Championships in Athletics The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Gottlieb Daimler Stadium, Stuttgart, Germany between August 13 and August 22 with the participation of 187 nations....	Stuttgart Stuttgart Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million .... , Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...	3rd	1,500 metres
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the state of Georgia, as well as the urban core of one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States.... , U.S.A.	6th	1,500 metres

External reference