After many years of absence and several controversies, Abeba Aregawi, a former world star on 1,500 meters, is back as a long-distance runner. This week, the 35-year-old is trying to qualify for the World Championship limit on 5,000 meters (14.50 minutes) at the Diamond League gala in Brussels on Friday or at the Finnkampen on Stockholm Stadium on Sunday.
Kajsa Bergqvist previously selected Aregawi for the national team in August. Nine years after she ruled her out in connection with the meldonium scandal, when the former high jump star was a track and field expert on SVT.
If she continues to compete, I hope she does it for someone else instead. She has forfeited her trust to compete for the Swedish national team, she said according to the TV channel.
”She was not convicted”
Bergqvist made her statements in July 2016 after Aregawi's doping ban for the banned substance had been lifted, four months after Aregawi tested positive. She was then one of Sweden's biggest track and field stars since she changed national teams from Ethiopia and won World Championship gold both outdoors (2013) and indoors (2014) on 1,500 meters in blue and yellow clothes.
National team captain Kajsa Bergqvist has today changed her stance on Aregawi.
I still think there should be an opportunity to come back. The fact is that she was actually not convicted of this crime in the end, but was acquitted, she says and continues:
Of course, had I known that I would one day be the national team captain for the Swedish national team, maybe I would have expressed myself differently in my role as an expert commentator for SVT. But they are different roles.
Bergqvist is impressed that Aregawi has taken herself back to such a high level, among other things after having four children.
She runs at a level that no one thought would be possible after such a long break. I think that's impressive anyway.
Chasing a World Championship ticket
Aregawi, who lives in her home country Ethiopia with her family, ran a Swedish record in the half marathon (1.06.26) in the spring. The record was later deleted since she had not made herself available for doping control at least six months before the competition.
Bergqvist admits that it is a risk that Aregawi does not train in Sweden.
Ethiopia and a few other countries, if you look at doping cases over the years, are a risk environment. Therefore, Abeba regularly reports which dietary supplements and medications she may use to the team doctor and gets everything approved.
David Hjorter/TT
Fact: This is what has happened around Abeba Aregawi
TT
December 10, 2012: The International Track and Field Federation gives the green light for Abeba Aregawi to start competing for Sweden instead of her home country Ethiopia. A few months earlier, she - who came to Sweden in 2009 - finished fifth in the Olympic final on 1,500 meters, a placement that eventually became second and silver after doping disqualifications for several of her competitors. The main reason it became Sweden was her then marriage to Henok Weldegebriel.
August 15, 2013: Aregawi takes her first global championship gold when the 23-year-old wins the women's World Championship final on 1,500 meters at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.
March 4, 2014: Three days before the indoor World Championship in Sopot, Expressen reveals that Aregawi and Weldgebriel have divorced, already in May 2013. Aregawi denies to Radiosporten in June 2025 that it would have been a sham marriage.
March 8, 2014: Four days after Expressen's revelation, Aregawi takes the World Championship gold on 1,500 meters.
February 29, 2016: The news that Abeba Aregawi has been doping-tested positive for meldonium breaks. The 25-year-old is one in a series of sports stars who are caught with elevated levels of the substance recently banned by the World Anti-Doping Organization Wada.
March 1, 2016: Aregawi's track and field club Hammarby breaks with her.
July 14, 2016: Aregawi is acquitted after the levels of meldonium were within the limit values. She is free to compete for Sweden again - but is later not selected for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
March 9, 2025: After living outside the public eye in Ethiopia for several years, and among other things having four children, Aregawi runs 1.06.36 in the Lisbon half marathon. The time is a Swedish record, but is later deleted since Aregawi had not registered for doping control at least six months before the competition.
August 22, 2025: Aregawi makes her comeback on the big arenas, in the Brussels Diamond League gala. She is chasing the qualifying limit for the World Championship in Tokyo in September on 5,000 meters.
August 24, 2025: Aregawi will compete on 5,000 meters in the Finnkampen on Stockholm Stadium.
