Qualifying for the Olympic Games is every athlete's dream. For Marhu and Selam Teferi achieving this dream is twice as special, as both qualified to represent Israel at the upcoming Tokyo Games. Marhu is a marathon runner and Selam runs track.
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"Even in our wildest dreams, we didn't think this would be possible," said Selam, and Marhu added: "When she qualified for the 5,000-meter (3 miles) run, two years ago in Belgium, I called her and we both screamed 'Yes! We are going to the Olympics together!' We were ecstatic."
Before flying to Tokyo, the couple will spend a month in Italy training.
"We are representing Israel, and it is a dream," Marhu said. "I participated in the Rio Olympics in 2016, but there is no comparison because this time my wife will be with me. And even though we will stay at two different Olympic Villages, just knowing that both of us are there is incredible for us. We will speak on the phone all the time and encourage each other."
Both Marhu and Selam were born in Ethiopia. Marhu made aliyah to Israel with his family at the age of 14, whereas Selam became an Israeli citizen in 2018.
"I'm so excited," Salem said. "This will be my first Olympics, and it is so special that my husband will be there with me."
Before their interview began, the couple had both finished their training that starts at 6:30 a.m.
"Every day, we wake up at 5:30," Marhu said. "We do a morning workout, then we rest, take a nap in the afternoon, and then do another workout in the evening. I run 200 kilometers [124 miles] a week, more than 30 kilometers [19 miles] per day. It is difficult and tiring, but there's no other choice."
Selam runs about 170 kilometers [105 miles] every week.
"We return home at about 8 p.m. after we are done with our workouts, and we are exhausted," she described.
Marhu was born in Dangla in northwest Ethiopia. His father used to work at the Ethiopian Education Ministry, and his mother passed away in 2000, when he was just eight years old. It is then that Marhu's father decided the family would immigrate to Israel.
"We came to Israel in 2006. Three of my older brothers stayed in Ethiopia. I was only 14. Upon arriving, I used to go to an integration center, where I studied Hebrew. Two years later, I moved to a boy's school, where my older brother was studying, and he suggested I join him."
At this age, Marhu was not into running yet. He discovered his talent for running by accident.
"There was a athletics competition between schools," he recalled. "I was at the new school for half a year already, and the team was missing one member to complete the required six.
"And they saw me, a skinny Ethiopian, and they assumed I was good at running. Everything thought that. My friends asked me to join the team. I told them, 'No way.' I had never done sports before, I didn't even have running shoes or workout clothes. How could I have competed?"
In the end, Marhu's friends convinced him.
"I arrived at the competition wearing shorts and my All Stars. It was a 5,000-meter (3 miles) run. No preparation. Just natural talent. I finished eight among all the participants."
Marhu's achievement did not go unnoticed, and Israeli athlete and coach Rafi Vishnitzer immediately approached him.
"He pulled me over to the side and told me, 'You are a good runner. If this is how you perform without training, you have enormous potential.' I will never forget that moment, he immediately brought me a pair of Adidas running shoes and a red running shirt. I was very touched."
Back then, Gal Levi, now the head of Israel's Athletics Organization, was a counselor at Marhu's school and created a joint running team between the school's students and the Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team.
"Marhu has the best personality," Levi said. "He is humble, focused on the goal and incredibly persistent. He loves to learn while moving, and he thinks critically."
Marhu began with running track.
"I enjoyed running very much," he said. "But it was also important for me to not neglect my studies. I got excellent grades in Biology, Mathematics, and English. I was pleased that I succeeded in juggling both my studies and running."
A year later, Marhu was already representing Israel at a youth championship in Poland.
"I was 17 years old. I ran 8,000 meters (5 miles), but I did not do very well. And yet, I was excited to represent my country; I was so proud. It gave me the motivation to continue running. I also saw legendary Ethiopian and Kenyan runners, and I knew that if I kept working hard, one day I might become as great as they are."
In 2012, Israeli athlete Dan Salpeter became Marhu's coach.
"Dan understood that to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games, the 5,000 and 10,00-meter (3 and 6 miles) runs would be much easier for me than the marathon, and therefore he made me focus on that. It was a huge change for me. I was even worried in the beginning, but he convinced me that that was the right thing to do.
"Because I grew up in Ethiopia, which is geographically higher, I have good cardiovascular endurance."
Marhu trained for three years before he ran his first marathon in Berlin in 2015.
"That was my very first marathon, and I finished it in 2:19:23. When I run a marathon, I try to stay focused on the goal. Breaking a record, or qualifying for the Olympics, things like that.
"Sometimes it gets much harder to focus, I begin to think about the fact that I have very little energy left, and how I will finish the race. I try to get rid of them fast. Once you hit 30 kilometers (20 miles), that's when it gets really tough. The body has no fuel, and it is incredibly challenging to finish the run with the very little energy you have left."
It happened to Marhu once that he could not finish a marathon.
"It was at the World Championship in London in 2017. After the 30-kilometer (20 miles) mark, I got dizzy and did not know where I was. I had to stop."
In other marathons, however, Marhu did an outstanding job. In 2020, just before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, he set a new Israeli record at the Seville Marathon in Spain, which he finished in 2:07:20, not that far behind the world record set by Kenyan long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge (2:01:39).
Mahru and Selam met in 2012 in Ethiopia.
"Because of the altitude, I train in Ethiopia, Kenya and Italy. I remember I joined a training team in Addis Abeba. We were 100 runners and Selam immediately caught my eye.
"And Mahru caught my attention," Selam said. "We began talking and his personality impressed me a lot."
Selam was born in Addis Ababa and has five siblings.
"I didn't run until I was 15," she says. "I loved running in the mountains, but only for leisure. My school figured out that I was a good runner and asked me to participate in a national project for runners.
Mahru: "The apartment that the runners were staying at was right next to Selam's home. We connected immediately and took a taxi every morning together for the training. This is how we had quality time to speak and get to know each other better. In the evenings, I would invite Selam over for dinner with our team. A few weeks later, I asked her to be my girlfriend."
"I was into Mahru as well," Selam said. "We became a couple. I was 17 back then and Mahru was 19."
A few months later, Mahru had to go back to Israel and Selam remained in Ethiopia.
"I missed him very much," she said. "It was difficult. We spoke on the phone, but it's not the same as being together. I wasn't thinking of moving to Israel yet, because my entire family was in Ethiopia, and the two of us weren't married."
"It truly was difficult," Mahru added. "I wanted to continue my career, but being apart from Selam made me miss her very much. I used to go to Ethiopia once every few months, and each time I left again, it was very sad."
"But despite all the challenges and the distance," Salem said, "We stayed together."
In the meantime, Mahru continued his career as an athlete. In 2015, he finished in first place in the marathon of the Israeli championship. A year later, at a marathon in Holland, he qualified for the Rio Olympics, in which he finished 73rd, having completed the run in 2:21:06.
"It was a good result, and from there, it only got better," Mahru said. Selam watched his performance on television in Ethiopia.
A few months after the Rio Olympic Games, Mahru decided to propose.
"One day, he called me from Israel and simply asked me to marry him," Selam said. She accepted the proposal, and three weeks later, Mahru arrived in Ethiopia. The two wed on January 12th, 2017.
"We did not have a wedding celebration. We went to the municipality and the Interior Ministry," Selam continued. "We will have a big celebration sometime in the future."
After becoming a married couple, Selam decided to make aliyah.
"I wanted to come to Israel very much, within three months I was already here. It was wonderful to be finally living with Mahru. I integrated well here and everyone was so nice."
Selam began to train at Maccabi Tel Aviv, the same place as Mahru.
"Only in Israel did I begin to train seriously, as a professional," she said.
Two years ago in Britain, Selam qualified for the 5,000-meter (3 miles) run at the Tokyo Olympics, and three weeks before her interview, in Belgium, she also qualified for the 10,000-meter (6 miles) run.
Selam currently holds the Israeli record for the 1,500-meter (1 mile) run (04:11:37).
"When Selam was in Britain, I was training in Ethiopia, and I saw her live on television. I was certain she would qualify," Mahru said.
Selam, who is not Jewish, received her Israeli citizenship two years ago, and that is how she can now represent the Jewish state at the Olympics.
"Many good people and organizations helped me receive my citizenship and helped me integrate here. And I am grateful to them all. Having citizenship helps me train with peace of mind and focus.
The couple purchased an apartment in Kiryat Ata, next to the port city of Haifa.
"It is such a pleasure to have an apartment of our own, even though we do not spend a lot of time there because of our training."
After their lengthy workouts, Mahru and Selam like to watch television.
"It helps me with my Hebrew," Selam said. "We like to watch Israeli comedies, we also go to the movies to watch comedies. We love to laugh."
Mahru: "We also like to travel, and we always go on vacation in Israel. After the Olympics, we will finally have a month off, and we will travel to Jerusalem, Tiberias, and the north. When we have a break from training, we go for a run outside our house, and there are such beautiful places here. When there's a hill, we compete to see who runs up the fastest. Selam always wins, she is very fast. We are very happy here."
And yet, Mahru and Selam are concerned as to how Israeli police officers treat Ethiopians.
"When a policeman sees an Ethiopian, he immediately thinks that he is violent and a criminal," Mahru said. "After the shooting of Solomon Tekah, we wanted to participate in protests, but were training abroad.
"We were stopped twice by traffic officers when we were on our way home from training. They immediately thought that we were drunk or that we had done something bad, and only after talking to us did they understand we had done nothing wrong.
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"Three weeks ago, it got really bad. We were on our way home on a Saturday after training. It was 7 a.m. The police officers signaled that we should stop by the side of the road. They were convinced that we were coming back drunk from a party. For a whole hour, the police officer did not let us go and did not believe us, even though we showed her our IDs like she asked, and were wearing sports clothes and explained to her who we were. It was very degrading and infuriating. We are two Olympic runners, we follow the law, and we do not deserve to be treated like that."
I'll admit, "there are Ethiopian youngsters that are bored and therefore stir up trouble," Mahru continued. "In my opinion, the government needs to invest funds into these neighborhoods and create educational projects that would improve the situation. Perhaps a running program that would give these teenagers something to be proud of and busy with, and that would also help find more talented runners who would represent this country and make it proud."
Mahru was contacted by one of the schools to share his life story with the younger generation.
"I am not ready yet," he said. "I am shy. I think it's very important to share with young people how I coped and succeeded, and in the future, I hope I will overcome my shyness and will give such a lecture."
In the meantime, Mahru and Selam are focused on the task at hand.
"We will do everything to do well at the Olympics," Mahru promised.
