Melat Kejeta is one of the fastest women over 42 kilometers that Germany has ever had. Because she won’t stop fighting even if she has to flee from oppression. About a woman who bites through, misses her “mom” – and can win a marathon medal.
Many reports on Melat Kejeta sound similar. There is talk of fairy tale. The fairy tale of the marathon runner who had to flee – but found her happiness in Germany. But it’s not that easy. It is simply never that simple when it comes to fleeing violence, oppression and repression. Fairy tales are never these dramatic stories. There is too much personal suffering involved. Traumas that can last for a long time.
This is also the case with Melat Kejeta. Because the runner doesn’t live a fairy tale, she struggles, like many refugees in Germany, to be thousands of kilometers away from the family and to get her personal and professional life back on track, with the German bureaucracy, with settling into a new culture – with everyday racism in the supermarket. At the Olympic marathon tomorrow night on Saturday (midnight German time), Kejeta, who was born and raised in Ethiopia, is running the race of her life so far.
The 28-year-old is only contesting her second run over the distance of 42.195 kilometers and could still become one of the best German marathon runners ever. At least that’s the verdict of the running scene. This is due to Kejeta’s marathon debut in Berlin in 2019, with which she qualified for Tokyo straight away. In the first marathon of her life, she crossed the finish line in 6th place in 2:23:57. It is the third fastest time ever for a German runner after Irina Mikitenko (2:19:19) and Pippig (2:21:45). While Germany is cheering, Kejeta is a little disappointed and says she aimed at 2:22.
“I am like a drug addict”
That’s typically Melat Kejeta. She is a fighter. Always wants to get better, has an enormous will. “Running is my life,” she explains in an interview with ntv.de, her hunger for success and her irrepressible energy. “It was inside of me since I was a child. When it comes to running, I’m like a drug addict.” Kejeta’s beginnings are quite bumpy. “I wasn’t that fast as a kid,” she laughs. “But I continued to fight to get to where I am today. Because if I can do something badly, I see that as a strength to develop myself further.”
Their fast times from today are no longer surprising. Because the talent of the young runner develops quickly thanks to hard training. “Back then, my trainer said to me: ‘You have marathon feet'”, remembers Kejeta. At 18 she ran into the limelight for the first time in Ethiopia, running a half marathon in 1:10:43. For comparison: The Dutch world-class runner Sifan Hassan completed the half marathon in 1:17:10 minutes in 2011 as an 18-year-old.
But then everything changes in the runner’s life. It becomes a completely different kind of marathon, for which she needs a lot more perseverance, perseverance and will. Kejeta doesn’t like to talk about this episode. Not just because the memories hurt. Also because otherwise her family could be in danger in Ethiopia. “The political situation is simply not safe,” says the 28-year-old. At that time, the runner’s father came to court under unknown circumstances, and she was supposed to testify against him. Father and daughter belong to the Oromo, the largest population group in the East African country, which has been oppressed by the government and politically persecuted for years.
An escape, not a fairy tale
Such a situation is certainly not reminiscent of a fairy tale. Kejeta is forced to flee Ethiopia forever. At a competition in Italy in 2013, the runner finally pulled away. “It was very complicated,” she says. “I can’t even remember how long it took because I was so stressed.” She fled to Belgium by train, and fear went with her. From there she is sent to Germany. None of this is planned. “The goal was: just get away!”
The runner comes to a home for refugees in Giessen. Anyone who has ever visited such a dwelling – let alone had to live in it for several months or years – knows that the conditions there are tough on the people. That a normal, productive life is hardly possible in such an accommodation. “I lived in a room with seven other people, so it wasn’t easy to calm down,” remembers Kejeta.
“There was a little forest there,” she continues. “I tried to keep training.” But the home management does not want them to leave the accommodation often. “I always had to explain myself, had to say why I was going out.” Kejeta feels locked in, but doesn’t give up again. “Running has also given me hope to keep going.” Then she joins the Kassel running team, which increasingly integrates refugees, and can start her career in Germany.
But Kejeta doesn’t just have to fight on the running track. For years she has been worried about finally getting her German passport and has to wrestle with a lawyer about it. “I ran to the mailbox every morning, but it was always empty.” The daily fear of someday going back to Ethiopia, back to oppression and the danger of being sent – that doesn’t fit into a fairy tale either.
Potatoes with spinach
“In addition, it was very difficult to get used to the culture and the people in Germany at first,” says Kejeta, “and the language wasn’t easy either.” The emotionally coldness of the Germans, which is sometimes presented, is bothering her, in Ethiopia people were simply more open and neighborly, says the 28-year-old. She also has to experience racism and also notices how she is looked at while shopping and greeted differently than white customers. “We’re all the same, but why are we so to each other?” She asks. “That always makes me sad.”
An escape doesn’t just end when you get somewhere. You still have to live separately from your own family, friends and your home culture. “I miss my mom the most,” says Kejeta. All that remains is the cell phone contact. But she also misses Kitfo, a traditional meat dish from Ethiopia. “You can find it in restaurants in Germany too, but it never tastes like my mom’s at home.” But now the runner has also discovered her favorite food in Germany: potatoes with spinach.
Despite fleeing and exertion, Kejeta was able to continue to convince in terms of running until the German bureaucracy thwarted her plans. In 2016 she became German champion over ten kilometers. After that, however, the German Athletics Association (DLV) sets the rule that the athletes competing for German championships need German citizenship – and they do not yet have a passport at this point.
Kejeta (left) clears the European record in the half marathon in 2020.
(Photo: imago images / ZUMA Wire)
But again Kejeta does not give up – and runs street races. With success, her huge potential is becoming apparent again and again. In 2018 she won the Berlin Half Marathon, followed by the fastest marathon debut of a German woman at the Berlin Marathon 2019. Internationally, Kejeta will cause a sensation at the 2020 World Cup in Poland. With 65:18 minutes she runs the eleventh fastest time in history and snatches the European record.
“Then I’ll call my mom”
Whether it’s a marathon or a half marathon, “I can do both,” says Kejeta. “Of course it’s difficult without training, but I train hard.” A medal in Tokyo would be a surprise to the relentless fighter, but it seems possible. The 28-year-old prepares meticulously in the high-altitude training camp in Kenya, where she covers up to 170 kilometers per week. Her former trainer Patrick Sang once said that he even gave her a time of 2:20 hours (world record: 02:14:04) trusts. “That is possible,” explains Kejeta based on her training experience. However, the runner has a few concerns about the weather: “I’m not that good in the heat. It’s so warm in Japan, I don’t know if we can run a very fast time there.”
“First of all, I’m happy that my dream has come true and that I’m running in the Olympic Games. A place in the top ten would be a success for me,” said Kejeta at the end. “But of course I would like to bring a medal with me to Germany.” National coach Katrin Dörre-Heinig gives her good chances in a video on ZDF: “I think there is a good chance that she can run for a medal. And it is time again for a German to win a medal again.”
Of course, Melat Kejeta, who always fights and leaves nothing to chance, already has a plan in case she should prevail against all odds and really win a medal. “First of all, I thank God,” says the runner. “And then I’ll call my mom.”
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