Girmaw Amare

Girmaw Amare was born in 1987 in Ethiopia

Amare was born on 26 October 1987 in the West Gojjam Zone of Ethiopia to a Jewish family. He grew up in a village without electricity or running water. He was the fourth of 6 children.

In 2006 he immigrated to Israel with his family and lived for about two years at the Nurit absorption center in Beersheba. He completed his matriculation at Emek Yezreel College and attended the Wingate Institute.

He did his military service at Training Base 8.

Amare won several Israeli titles on the track and road. He set Israeli marathon records at Valencia in 2018 and Prague in 2019, and ran in the 2017 World Championships. He ran the Olympic marathon in 2021, finishing 28th, and won team gold at the 2022 European Marathon Cup in Munich.

In 2023 he ran a personal record of 2:05:52 at the Valencia Marathon. In 2024 he helped Israel take second place in the team half marathon at the European Championships in Rome, and finished 44th in the Paris Olympic marathon. He is married and has a daughter named Adi.