2004 Athens Olympics and Retirement
After a relatively poor start to the 2004 season that included slow times and an 8th place finish in a 1500 meter race in Rome, El Guerrouj entered in both the 1500 metres and 5000 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Only 20 days before the Olympic final, 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Bernard Lagat ran the fastest 1500 m in 2004 (3:27.40), narrowly defeating El Guerrouj (3:27.64) at the Weltklasse Zürich meet on August 6. On August 24 in final straight of the Olympic 1500m final El Guerrouj narrowly beat Lagat by 0.12 seconds, winning the gold medal. In a thrilling finale, entering the home straight El Guerrouj led, only to be overtaken by Lagat- and then El Guerrouj re-took the lead only a few strides from the line.
Four days later El Guerrouj won the 5,000 m final with a time of 13:14.39 preventing Kenenisa Bekele from achieving the 5000 m/10000 m distance double, last achieved by Ethiopian Miruts Yifter in 1980 Moscow Olympics.
El Guerrouj became the first man in 80 years to win both 1500m and 5000m titles in the same Olympics, previously achieved only by the "Flying Finn" Paavo Nurmi in 1924.
Having fulfilled his sporting ambitions El Guerrouj never competed internationally again, and announced his retirement on May 22, 2006.
Read more about this topic: Hicham El Guerrouj
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