Alemu Bekele Gebre was born and raised in Lemu, a small rural farming community near Bekoji in Ethiopia's Arsi Zone. He grew up in a family of nine children and spent his early years assisting his parents with their cereal crops. He moved to stay with his grandparents when he started school but he became distracted from his studies as his interest in running grew. His father urged him to focus on his schoolwork and Alemu did so, going on to high school in Bekoji in 2005. The coach at the school, Sentayehu Eshetu, had taught world champions Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba previously and Alemu again threw himself into running practice. His father refused to support him further and forced him to leave the family home.[4]
Alemu lived on the streets for a period but continued to run in local races. A good performance at a youth trial race in 2007 earned him a training place with the Ethiopian Athletics Federation and the prestigious Muger Cement athletics club took him in. He earned a stipend of 200 Ethiopian Birr to continue training, but wished to compete abroad and earn more from his running. Aware of the path of previous Ethiopian athletes, he contacted the Bahrain Athletics Association and asked if he could transfer to run for the oil-rich Middle East country. The Bahraini authorities agreed and in his first competition for them, the 2009 Asian Cross Country Championships he won the junior section.[4]
At the World half marathon championships in Denmark, Alemu complete the half marathon in 1:01:46.
He won the 10,000 m title at the 2013 Arab Championships and repeated that finish at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships, where he was also the 5000m runner-up behind fellow Bahraini-Ethiopian transferee Dejenee Regassa.[6]
