Zouhair Talbi

Originally from Tighassaline, Khenifra, Morocco, he was a keen soccer player before transitioning to distance running as a teenager. After excelling, at the age of 18 years-old he competed in the U20 race at the 2013 World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, and placed 14th overall. In 2018, he competed in the Oslo Diamond League event in Oslo, running 28:31 to place 4th in the 10,000m.[2] He decided to move to the United States and studied at the Northwest Kansas Technical College, and then moved to Oklahoma City University.[3] He was a 2015 World University Games silver medalist.[4] He set a 28:02 personal best in Portland, Oregon in 2019.[5]

On May 14, 2021, he met the Olympic qualifying standard as he won the 10,000m at the Sound Running Track Meet in California and in doing so improved his personal best from 28:02 to 27:20:61.[6] It was the second-fastest performance ever by a collegiate athlete and ranked No. 7 in the world for the year so far. Displaying a fast finish Talbi was in third with two laps remaining before covering the final 400 meters in 59.41 seconds to beat Emmanuel Bor and Joe Klecker.[7] However, Talbi had to be pulled from the Olympics shortly before the commencement as he had not met the drug testing requirements for an athlete from Morocco.[2]

In 2023, he set a new half marathon personal best of 1:01:08 to finish fifth at the 2023 Houston Half Marathon.[8][9] Later in 2023 Talbi ran 2:08.35 to finish fifth at the Boston Marathon.[10]