For the final 4 a long time, Ethiopia has gained a medal at each World XC Championships. It’s an unbelievable 44-year streak constructed on dominance and expertise. However the streak is now in jeopardy. On Tuesday, it was reported that greater than a dozen Ethiopian athletes have been denied journey visas to the U.S. forward of this weekend’s World XC Championships in Tallahassee, Fla.
In line with a report from LetsRun.com, the Ethiopian Athletics Federation confirmed that 14 of its 18 U20 athletes had their U.S. visa purposes rejected by the American embassy in Addis Ababa. Two members of the 4 x 2km combined relay and 4 senior athletes have been additionally affected.
Ethiopia has solely entered 1 man + 3 ladies in U20 races at Saturday’s World Cross Nation Champs in Florida.
The federation mentioned a minimum of 14 athletes had their US visa purposes rejected.
Ethiopian U20 males’s streak of 36 straight crew medals will finish.https://t.co/Ly84Qhvyfn
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) January 6, 2026
Ethiopia had supposed to ship full squads of six males and 6 ladies throughout all age teams. As an alternative, just one U20 male runner, Ayele Sewnet, was granted a visa. With 4 runners required to attain in cross-country crew competitors, Ethiopia will probably be unable to report a crew lead to both the U20 males’s or U20 ladies’s races, ending its 44-year medal streak.
The state of affairs for Ethiopia is much less dire on the senior stage. LetsRun.com experiences that Ethiopia was capable of exchange the affected senior athletes with runners who already held legitimate visas or have been primarily based within the U.S., permitting the nation to subject full groups for each the senior males’s and girls’s races, in addition to the combined relay.
The Ethiopian Athletics Federation mentioned the visa purposes have been first submitted on Dec. 12, roughly one month after the nation’s nationwide cross-country trials. Of the preliminary 34 visa requests, 23 have been reportedly denied. A second spherical of purposes, submitted weeks later, had the identical outcome.
Canadian Operating contacted a supply inside Ethiopian athletics, who mentioned neither the federation nor athletes have been supplied with a proof for why the visas have been rejected.
Ethiopia just isn’t alone in dealing with points. Eritrea, which despatched greater than half a dozen athletes to the final two World Cross Nation Championships in Serbia and Australia, will probably be unable to compete within the 2026 version after the nation was positioned below a full U.S. journey ban in June 2025 by President Donald Trump.
World Athletics mentioned it turned conscious of Ethiopia’s situation in mid-December. LetsRun.com reported that World Athletics president Seb Coe mentioned he had been working with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee in an try and resolve the state of affairs. Coe underlined the significance of getting Ethiopia at these championships, given the nation’s wealthy historical past within the occasion. “It’s essential that for those who host a World Cross Nation Championships, you have got Ethiopia there,” he mentioned.
Visa issues appear to be a recurring problem at main worldwide competitions, however issues are rising because the U.S. is slated to host extra international athletics occasions over the following three years, together with the 2026 World Athletics U20 Championships in Eugene, Ore., and the 2028 Olympic Video games in Los Angeles.
