Cross country is not an Olympic event, but results from the recent World Cross Country Championships (WCCC) could foreshadow this year’s Olympic distance running competition.

In 2004, World Cross Country results were particularly predictive on the men’s side. Five of the six medalists in the Olympic 5000- and 10,000-meter races placed in the top six in the World Cross Country long race held that year.

Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele won both the long and short cross country titles in 2004, then proceeded to take the gold in the Olympic 10,000 plus the silver in the 5000. Sileshi Sihine was third in the cross country and second in the Olympic 10,000. Eliud Kipchoge took fourth in the WCCC and placed third in the 5000, while Zersenay Tadese was sixth in the cross country and grabbed the bronze in the 10,000 in Athens.

On the women’s side, both the silver and bronze medal winners in the 5000 and 10,000 in Athens placed in the top five of either the long or short race at the Cross Country Championships.

This year, Bekele prevailed again at the WCCC, serving notice that he’ll again be among the favorites in the distance races in Beijing. Fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, the 5000-meter bronze medal winner in Athens, was the women’s WCCC champ this year.