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At 20 years and 358 days, Ghebreslassie eased away from Lucas Rotich of Kenya and Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia to become the youngest men’s winner in the history of the New York City Marathon last year. He broke the tape in 2:07:51, a time that went down as the third-fastest winning time in event history.

Ghebreslassie was a surprise winner at the 2015 IAAF World Championships Marathon, battling the Beijing heat to claim victory in 2:12:28. At 19 years of age, he became the youngest winner in IAAF World Championships Marathon history, and his gold medal was Eritrea’s first ever at the championships.

Prior to his historic performance in Beijing, Ghebreslassie had completed only two marathons. He was a pacesetter for the 2014 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, planning to drop out after 35 kilometers, but continued on to finish sixth overall in 2:09:08. The following spring, he improved his personal best to 2:07:47 with a second-place finish at the Hamburg Marathon in Germany. He lowered that time by one second in 2016, taking fourth at the Virgin Money London Marathon. He took fourth at the Rio Olympic Marathon later last year; after falling back to 13th place at the 30-kilometer mark, he recovered over the final miles to finish one place off the podium.