Weini Kelati has been running her whole life.
Born in a small village in Tsada Christian, Central Region, Eritrea (which is in Africa), she had to walk four or five hours to get to school every day. If she was running late, she had to run.
Now she has run all the way to the Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Kelati’s father passed away when she was young. She watched her mother struggle to raise her and her family. Kelati wanted to help out but didn’t know how until she was in middle school. That’s when her PE teacher told her that she had to run in class to get her grade.
At first, Kelani was confused. She had already run to school that morning, and her legs were sore. But her teacher told her that she had to run as fast as she could. That’s when she discovered that she is really good at running – even outrunning all of her classmates.
Then she started running competitively. But it was more about her helping her family than winning races, because Eritrea is one of the least developed countries in the world. In 2014, she ran in the World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Then when she had a chance without telling anyone, she stayed in the United States to help her family financially from abroad. Then she sought asylum and met her cousin living in Leesburg, Virginia.
Her cousin told her that she had to do well in school before she could run professionally. So without knowing any English at first, Kelani worked hard at Heritage High School in Leesburg, Virginia and got a scholarship to run at New Mexico University. There she won the 2019 NCAA Division 1 championship. And in 2020, she turned professional and became a U.S. citizen!
Kelani trains in Flagstaff, Arizona, along with some of the top runners in the U.S. Because it is in high altitude, it makes everything harder during training, but it makes them better athletes. She was able to break the American half marathon record in 1:06.25 at the Houston half marathon in January 2024. Then she was able to win the 10,000 meters on the track at the Olympic Trials in 31:41.07 to get on her first Olympics team.
In Paris at age 27, she was able to take 51 seconds off her time from the Olympic Trials and finished in 30:49.98. That was good enough for 8th overall out of 23 runners. What’s more, she was just 7 seconds behind the gold-medal winner. I find her achievements to be truly amazing.
