The women's 10,000 metres was one of 23 track events of the athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics

At the 2004 Summer Olympics, the athletics events were held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 18 to August 29, except for the marathons , the race walks , and the shot put...

, in Athens

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

. It was contested at the Athens Olympic Stadium, on August 27, by a total of 31 athletes from 20 nations. No preliminary rounds were held at this distance, since the number of competitors allowed a direct final.

Like Fernanda Ribeiro

Fernanda Ribeiro

Maria Fernanda Moreira Ribeiro, GCIH , is a long-distance runner, born in Penafiel, Portugal. She achieved the top of her career in the 1996 Summer Olympics where she won the women's 10,000 m gold medal, giving Portugal their 3rd Olympic gold , and establishing a new Olympic record - 31:01.63.-...

 in the 2000 Summer Olympics

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

, defending champion Derartu Tulu

Derartu Tulu

Derartu Tulu is an Ethiopian long distance track, road and marathon athlete.Derartu , a member of the Oromo ethnic group, grew up tending cattle in the village of Bekoji in the highlands of Arsi Province...

 was not able to maintain her title, finishing in the third place behind compatriot (and cousin) Ejegayehu Dibaba

Ejegayehu Dibaba

Ejegayehu Dibaba is an Ethiopian long-distance runner.She is a member of the Oromo ethnic group from the high-altitude Arsi Zone of the Oromia Region. She is the third child of six, her younger sisters Tirunesh and Genzebe are also international long distance athletes, and brother Dejene is marked...

 and the winner Xing Huina

Xing Huina

Xing Huina is a Chinese track and field athlete.-Biography:Xing was born to family of farmers in Hanting, Weifang, Shandong. Standing 1.66 m tall and weighing 50 kg , she began training at Weifang City Sport School, coached by Chi Yuzhai...

. In Athens, Ribeiro did not finish the race due to fatigue, along with British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 marathon

Marathon

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres , that is usually run as a road race...

 world record holder Paula Radcliffe

Paula Radcliffe

Paula Jane Radcliffe, MBE is an English long-distance runner. She is the current women's world record holder in the marathon with her time of 2:15:25 hours...

.

Qualification

The Olympic qualification period for the athletics ran from January 1, 2003 to August 9, 2004. For this event, each National Olympic Committee

National Olympic Committee

National Olympic Committees are the national constituents of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, they are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games...

 (NOC) was permitted to enter up to three athletes, provided they had run below 31:45.00 minutes during this period in IAAF

International Association of Athletics Federations

The International Association of Athletics Federations is the international governing body for the sport of athletics. It was founded in 1912 at its first congress in Stockholm, Sweden by representatives from 17 national athletics federations as the International Amateur Athletics Federation...

-sanctioned meetings or tournaments. If a NOC had no athletes qualified under this standard, it could enter up to one athlete that had run below 32:17.00 minutes.

Records

These are the standing world and Olympic records (in minutes) prior to the 2004 Summer Olympics.

World Record	29:31.78	Wang Junxia Wang Junxia Wang Junxia is a Chinese former long-distance runner.-Career:Wang was coached by Ma Junren until 1995 and by Mao Dezhen from 1995 to her retirement after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics....	Beijing Beijing Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...  (CHN People's Republic of China China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres... )	8 September 1993
Olympic Record	30:17.49	Derartu Tulu Derartu Tulu Derartu Tulu is an Ethiopian long distance track, road and marathon athlete.Derartu , a member of the Oromo ethnic group, grew up tending cattle in the village of Bekoji in the highlands of Arsi Province...	Sydney Sydney Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...  (AUS Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... )	30 September 2000

Results

All times shown are in minutes. The following abbreviations are used:

• DNF denotes "did not finish"
• NR denotes "national record"
• PB denotes "personal best"
• SB denotes "season best"

The final was held on August 27.

Rank	Athlete	Time
		30:24.36	PB
		30:24.98	PB
		30:26.42	SB
4		30:28.30
5		30:31.92
6		30:54.37	SB
7		31:04.10	NR
8		31:04.62
9		31:05.90	PB
10		31:06.63	NR
11		31:11.24	NR
12		31:41.13
13		31:42.18
14		31:50.49
15		32:00.85
16		32:12.57
17		32:14.00
18		32:15.12
19		32:18.16
20		32:21.47
21		32:24.04
22		32:25.10
23		32:29.57
24		32:32.01
25		33:35.27
26		33:48.66
27		34:04.97
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF
—		DNF