Global icon Gebrselassie defied his father to run
The greatest long-distance runner of all is humility personified and oozes charm
ATHLETICS aficionados are well acquainted with the fact that Haile Gebrselassie has won just about every race under the sun.
Be it pounding the tar in the Berlin Marathon, trekking on track in long distance at the World Championships or Olympics, Gebrselassie has been there, done that and grabbed the gold medals.
A breaker of 27 records, the 41-year-old Ethiopian, who celebrates his birthday on April 18, was born to run.
Yet his own father never believed that one of his 10 children
My father thought running was a waste of time and that no one could make it a career
could make a career out of chasing thin air.
“My father thought running was a waste of time,” recalled Gebrselassie in an exclusive interview in Cape Town this week. “He never believed anyone could make a career out of it. He tried to stop me.”
The son persevered. The father wasn’t impressed.
“When I won a car at the World Championship in Stuttgart in 1993, I called him to share the news.” Son: “I won a car.” Father: “How can anyone win a car from running? Where is it?
Son: “I said ‘it’s coming’. When the car arrived in Addis Ababa he still wasn’t impressed.
Father: “These people are too nice to give a person a car just for nothing.”
That nothing has seen Gebrselassie amass so much wealth he has built three hotels in Ethiopia.
At least one family member had a positive impact on his career.
“I borrowed my first running shoes, a pair of adidas, from my brother,” recalls the father of four — three girls and a boy.
The partnership with the sports apparel company became formal and they remain his suppliers to date.
As he criss-crossed the world, pounding track and tar and breaking records to boot, the COOL RUNNER: Athletics legend Haile Gebrselassie during an event at the Cullinan Hotel in Cape Town. He was in the mother city over the Easter weekend to attend the Two Oceans marathon exploits of the Ethiopian inspired a wannabe runner in South Africa.
Gebrselassie grew into a global icon when he grabbed gold in the 5 000m and 10 000m races at the 1992 Junior World Championships on the South Korean soil of Seoul, and the then 12year-old Cape Town boy who idolised him is now a sports scientist of international repute.
“All my friends had posters of Hansie Cronje. I had Haile. I wanted to be him,” Ross Tucker told me.
“But clearly that didn’t work out.”
What worked out was that Gebrselassie the husband to Alem, and father of four — three girls Eden, Melat, Batiy and son Natty — saw his star rise.
“My son likes to play football. It is too early to tell if he is any good,” laughs the man who confesses his footy interest is spawned by the World Cup.
His photo-finish with Paul Tergat in the final 200m remains one of the sport’s greatest moments.
Location? Sydney. Occasion? 2000 Olympics. Competition? 10 000m title in which he pipped Tergat to the post.
Small wonder it ranks as the most memorable moment of his career.
“Because of the way I won it; my word, it was very close, heh? We Ethiopians, we always stick to one plan: follow and attack,” he beams, flashing that disarming, infectious smile as he recalls the moment with particular fondness.
“That evening was an amazing world record. I was, I can say, really flying that night,” he says in his authorised biography — The Greatest: The Haile Gebrselassie Story penned by Jim Denison — of the 5 000m in Zurich in 1995 when he broke the world record by an incredible 11 seconds.
For a man who is the greatest long distance runner of all time and a multiple record holder, Gebrselassie has no airs and graces.
Humility personified and unassuming, he oozes charm as he works a room with an audience including Elana Meyer and Louis Massyn, a 64-year-old who ran his 40th Two Oceans marathon yesterday.
“I met you earlier, we took a picture and you almost broke my hand,” he joked about Massyn’s firm handshake.
Simplicity is the secret to Gebrselassie’s success.
“I wake up in the morning, go to the forest, run two hours and go back home.
“This running comes from childhood. Running to school since age four, carrying my school bag.”
To this day, the running
FLYING HIGH: Haile Gebrselassie on his way to Olympic glory in Sydney posture of the boy born in Asella, Arsi Province, who went on to break 27 world records, sees his left arm clutching the invisible bag.
“It is in our lifestyle,” is his way of explaining why the East Africans are road-running gods.
Kenenisa Bekele. Wilson Kipsang. Moses Kipsiro. You name them, they hail from Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. Britain can claim Moh Farah, but he is a son of Somalia.
“It comes from helping our parents in the fields, working in the farms. No city life. No chocolate. It is too expensive.
“Where did you start running?” he asks, pointing at Elana.
“On the farm,” responds the 1992 10 000m Olympic silver medalist. “You see, the farm,” he laughs. “That is why us Ethiopians and Kenyans are good at this. If someone wins it inspires others to try. It is the same as Brazil with soccer. There is no secret, really.”
But Tucker believes there’s more to it than the lean and mean marathon machine suggests.
“I’m fascinated by what makes the world’s best the best. And in terms of running, Haile was the foremost among them.
“He has exponentially long legs and no hips. He has no muscle on the Achilles tendon, which means no extra weight.
“He has an incredible ability to use oxygen and distribute it to the brain.”
Gebrselassie was a boy of four when Bob Marley visited Ethiopia, and has no recollection of that event.
He wishes Africans can stop killing Nelson Mandela through xenophobia.
“Marley’s music speaks of humanity, equality, brotherhood.
“Mandela teaches us respect, unity. With the xenophobia that happens sometimes, it is like Mandela is dying for the second time.
“The man did so much for South Africa, Africa and the whole world. The least we can do is to try and live life through his example of tolerance.”
He didn’t run the Two Oceans yesterday “because I came to see, to watch. It is a test I want to take, as well as the Comrades Marathon. I want to be able to tell my children that I ran all the distances.”
I wake up in the morning, go to the forest, run two hours and go back home. This comes from childhood