the olympic records for the event were both set by ethiopians at the 2008 beijing olympics and 2016 rio olympics: kenenisa bekele set the men's record at 27:01.17 minutes, while almaz ayana set the women's mark at 29:17.45 minutes. the 10,000 metres world record has been broken at the olympics on two occasions; lasse virén's winning time of 27:38.35 minutes in 1972 stood as the record for less than a year, and almaz ayana knocked 14 seconds off the women's record in 2016.