Yonas Kinde

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by his given name, Yonas, and not as Kinde.

Yonas Kinde (born 7 May 1980) is a track and field athlete originally from Ethiopia, but now living and training in Luxembourg. He was selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to compete for the Refugee Olympic Team (ROT) at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is coached by Yves Göldi. Yonas ran his fastest marathon with a time of 2 hours 17 minutes.

Yonas Kinde

Yonas Kinde
Personal information
Nationality	Luxembourgish
Born	(1980-05-07) 7 May 1980 (age 45) Gondar, Ethiopia
Height	73
Weight	60
Sport
Sport	marathon,half marathon,10km
Club	Ciltic Diekrich
Achievements and titles
Personal best	2:17:12

Personal life

Yonas is originally from Ethiopia. He has been living in Luxembourg since 2012 and obtained Luxembourgish nationality in 2020.^[1] Yonas speaks French, English, Luxembourgish, and Amharic; he works as a massage therapist.^[2][3][4]

Athletics career

Yonas began running in Ethiopia as a teenager mainly in cross-country, 10,000m and half marathons, eventually moving up to the full marathon. During his relatively short running career in Europe, coached by Yves Göldi, he won several titles in Luxembourg, France and Germany.^[5] In Frankfurt, Germany he ran his personal best in 2015 in 2 hours and 17 minutes.

Due to his refugee status, Yonas could not compete at international competitions, despite being fast enough to have qualified.^{[citation needed]} On 3 July 2016, the IOC announced that Yonas would be part of a team of ten athletes selected to compete as a Refugee Olympic Athletes team at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[6] He competed in the men's marathon.^[7]

Competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing Refugee Athletes
2016	Summer Olympics	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	90th	Marathon	2:24:08