Alemayehu Bezabeh Desta (Amharic: አለማየሁ በዛበህ ደስታ; born c. 1986) is an athlete who competes in middle- and long-distance running on the track, and also in cross country. Born in Ethiopia, he represents Spain internationally. His brother, Sisay Bezabeh, is also a professional runner and represents Australia internationally.[2]
In December 2010 Alemayehu Bezabeh was arrested as part of Operation Galgo, an investigation by the Spanish Guardia Civil into an alleged doping ring among athletes in Spain, having been caught red-handed carrying a bag of his own blood for a blood transfusion.
Biography
Arrival in Spain
Born in Addis Ababa, Alemayehu Bezabeh arrived in Spain in 2004 via plane and stayed in the country as an illegal immigrant, sleeping outdoors and dreaming of becoming a professional runner. He began living off the winnings of the races he would take part in every week. Following a calf injury, doctors at a hospital in the Community of Madrid discovered that he had no papers and he did not know his date of birth.[3]
X-ray wrist tests revealed him to be over 18 and after some estimations of his age he was given a nominal birthday of 1 January 1986.[3] The test involved examination of the proportions of the individual bones of a wrist; it provides an estimate of biological age of a growing body, but is not informative for an age above 18 (male) when the bone growth saturates.[4] As a result of his strong running skills, Bezabeh was given naturalised citizen status in 2008 to allow him to compete internationally for Spain.[1]
On 9 December 2010 Alemayehu was arrested as part of Operation Galgo, an investigation by the Spanish Guardia Civil into a large-scale doping ring among athletes in Spain centred on the disgraced Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and the Spanish running star Marta Dominguez, who was arrested on suspicion of trafficking in drugs. He confessed to his involvement in the alleged doping ring after having been surprised by the Guardia Civil in the company of the top Spanish coach Manuel Pascua Piqueras and the retired competitive mountain-biker Alberto León, when he was caught red-handed carrying a bag of his own blood which he was intending to use for an illegal autotransfusion to improve his athletic performance.[10] The Real Federación Española de Atletismo immediately withdrew Alemayehu from the Spanish team that was due to compete on 12 December 2010 in the European Cross Country Championships in Portugal, where he would have been the defending champion.
In March 2011 he was cleared by the national federation of charges for attempted doping, as its committee declared that there was not sufficient evidence against him. The federation president, José María Odriozola, accepted Bezabeh's version of events – that he believed León was a medic who was analysing his blood for a liver problem.[11] However, Spain's sports disciplinary committee overturned the verdict in June 2011, and banned Alemayehu from sports for 2 years.[12]
