Simon Bairu is a former Canadian long-distance runner born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to an Ethiopian father and an Eritrean mother. After a short stint in Athens, Greece, he moved with his family to Canada at the age of three and was raised in Regina, Saskatchewan. Simon attended Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School, where he flourished at the provincial and national level running scene. Bairu attended the University of Wisconsin, where he was guided by his current coach, Jerry Schumacher, to two NCAA cross-country titles amongst his many running accolades. Bairu currently trains out of Portland, Oregon, with coach Schumacher as well as Wisconsin teammates Chris Solinsky, Matt Tegenkamp and Tim Nelson. He had a 12th place finish at the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and set a 10,000 m Canadian national record of 27:23.63 minutes in Stanford that year. He won the first ever Miami Beach Half Marathon in December 2011, and the San Jose Half Marathon in October 2012. On September 5th, 2014, Bairu official retired from professional racing. [More at Wikipedia]

August 8th, 1983 in (Age 40)