Haile successful
Words & photography | Michel L’Huillier / TCS Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie is one of the world’s best athletes, but he pulled out of the Beijing Olympics because he’s saving himself for London 2012. Panting for breath, Voyager catches up with this fast-mover at his home in Addis Ababa HE IS THE ATHLETE who has [...]
Words & photography | Michel L’Huillier / TCS
Ethiopian runner Haile Gebrselassie is one of the
world’s best athletes, but he pulled out of the
Beijing Olympics because he’s saving himself for
London 2012. Panting for breath, Voyager catches up
with this fast-mover at his home in Addis Ababa
HE IS THE ATHLETE who has broken
world records and who still continues
to challenge himself, yet this summer
Haile Gebrselassie pulled out of
the Beijing Olympics. Referring to
his asthma, he told Reuters: “The
pollution in China is a threat to my
health and it would be difficult for me to run 42km in my
current condition.” He hopes to compete instead in the
2012 Olympics in London.
Considered by many to be the best distance runner of all
time, over the past 15 years the Ethiopian athlete has
won two Olympic golds, four world titles and gained 15
world records over five distances, from 3,000 to 10,000
metres. Last September the 34-year-old also set the new
world record for the Berlin Marathon at 2 hours 4 minutes,
26 seconds. Earlier this year he won 26 seconds. Earlier this year he won the Dubai Marathon
– and created another record as it was the fastest time
ever won in Dubai (2:04:53).
Gebrselassie was born to a humble peasant family
in the highlands of central Ethiopia. From an early age
he rose before dawn to begin a daily routine of milking,
collecting manure for the kitchen fifire and shepherding
the family’s herds of animals – all before walking 10km
to school. Growing up without electricity and with the
nearest drinking water a three-hour walk away, it was
little wonder this small boy, one of 10 children, dreamt of
a better life.
“I imagined that one day I would become an important,
famous person and would travel all over the world,” he
explains, almost 30 years on, as he sips a cup of tea in the
kitchen of his expansive mansion on one of the hills that
surround Addis Ababa, the country’s capital.
At the age of seven, Gebrselassie found the inspiration
he needed: a radio broadcast of the 10,000m at the 1980
Moscow Olympic Games in which the Ethiopian Miruts
Yifter won the gold medal. “That was a decisive moment
in my life,” he recalls. “I decided that I would become the
best athlete ever seen, so I started running everywhere,
even to school. I let my mind drift, imagining I was
running far away from the wheat fields and hardship.”
His childhood running left its mark: even as an adult, he
ran with his left arm crooked, the effect of holding school
books under his arm. Gebrselassie’s first trainer was his
older brother, Tekeye, who was a marathon runner. “When
I was just 14, he signed me up for my first 1,500m race
in the Asela stadium, where I competed with much older
boys,” Gebrselassie recalls.
“I’ll always remember how they laughed at me when
they saw me on the starting line, as I was so little and
puny. And then the surprise on their faces when they saw
me break away from the group on the second lap to win
the race on my own.”
alt="Haile Gebrselassie leads the Ethiopian national long-distance team in a training run"
align="right"src="http://www.bmivoyager.com/images/2008/sept/voyager_sept067.jpg">
Reaching his early 30s, having won everything on the
track, Gebrselassie might have been expected to retire
from athletics and enjoy life with his four children. Yet he
took on a new challenge: the marathon.
“Before, I ran exclusively to win, save and ensure a
better life for myself. But recently my mentality has
changed,” he says. “Now I earn more money from affairs
that are unconnected to athletics, so I run because my
body and mind need it. Over the years I’ve become
too slow for track running and the natural thing was to
change to marathon running. Although I still feel the
competitive spirit, it doesn’t matter if I win or lose.” Of
course, he usually wins.
“Everybody expects Haile to keep on breaking records,”
says his friend Richard Nerurkar, a British ex-marathon
runner who lives in Addis Ababa. This same hunger for
success has led him, in his first season as a marathonrunner,
to achieve major victories in the prestigious
marathons of Berlin and Fufoka. His time of 2:05:56 in
Berlin allowed him to enter the exclusive group of only
five athletes capable of running a marathon in under
2:06. One of the group’s leading lights is Kenyan Paul
Tergat, who held the world record of 2:04:55 until last
year. The rivalry between the two runners goes way back
and includes the historic final of the 10,000-metres in the
Sydney Olympics in 2000, where the Ethiopian beat the
Kenyan after an extremely close call. Tergat had to accept
the same result in the finals of two World Championships
and in the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996.
alt="Gebrselassie runs at last year’s Flora London Marathon. He is among the Ethiopian runners honoured in the new African Athletics Hall of
Fame in Addis Ababa"align="left"src="http://www.bmivoyager.com/images/2008/sept/voyager_sept069.jpg">
Last year Gebrselassie took part in only two
competitions: the London Marathon, and the World
Championship in Osaka. Unlike the previous year, he
trained with the rest of the Ethiopian runners, rather than
sticking to his own regimen. He joined his colleagues from
the national marathon team (most of whom were in their
20s) at the Tadek training grounds, just outside Addis
Ababa, before dawn. Overseeing them was Ethiopian team
coach Dr Woldemeskel Kostre.
“From the first day, Haile seemed special,” recalls
Dr Kostre, who discovered Gebrselassie. “I knew that
breaking records wouldn’t be a problem for him. I believe
everybody thought the same.”
After training, Gebrselassie returns to his other
preoccupations – his businesses. “I feel privileged to
have travelled the world through my experiences; this
makes me feel a responsibility towards the people of this
country,” Gebrselassie says as we drive back into town
after training. We reach one of his buildings, located by
the airport, and named after his wife, Alem.
From his eighth-floor office Gebrselassie runs two
types of business: “One provides me with money; the
other gives personal satisfaction,” he says. The former is
his real estate businesses, and a new company to import
trucks and construction machinery. Both are largely in the
hands of his wife and brother, a postgraduate economist.
“I concentrate on my schools projects; there are two at
the moment, one in Asela and the other in Bahar Dar, with
over 1,000 students,” enthuses Gebrselassie. “Education is
the key to changing poverty in Ethiopia.”
This social sensitivity is not new, says Jos Hermens,
the Dutch manager who has taken care of Gebrselassie’s
career since the beginning. ”I’d only just met him, when
he was 17, when he told me firmly that he wanted to
become the best athlete in the world so he could help his
compatriots from his privileged situation,” says Hermens.
“I’m not a charitable institution,” Gebrselassie points
out. “Nobody should expect me to go around giving my
money away. What I mean to do is to create work for as
many people as possible.” It is this approach that has led
many of those near him to see him as a future president.
However, it’s not an ambition he shares: “I can do more
through my own private initiatives.” These include
collaborating on all kinds of campaigns with numerous
organisations that approach him for help.
Gebrselassie and Richard Nerurkar created the
Great Ethiopian Run in Addis Ababa (for amateur and
professional runners) in 2001. It’s a platform from which
to spread important health messages to the population,
especially about AIDS, as well as to help to change
perceptions about the country.
“Haile is such a hero to Ethiopians,” says Nerurkar. “His
appearances in events, interviews and campaigns abroad
make him the best unofficial ambassador for Ethiopia.
He manages to exert influence on things concerning the
economy and the country’s development.”
Haile’s hot spots
- BEST FOR SHOPPING
“The Merkato market. You
can buy everything, really
everything here.” - BEST CAFE BAR
The Olympic Café
[owned by Haile
Gebrselassie’s brother].
Bole Road, Addis Ababa,
+ 251 (0)11 662 2936 - BEST HOTEL
The Sheraton, Taitu Street,
PO Box 6002, Addis Ababa,
+ 251 (0)11 517 1717;
www.starwoodhotels.com - BEST RESTAURANT
“Habesha is a very nice
restaurant with good
Ethiopian food.”
Bole Road, Addis Ababa,
+251 (0)11 551 8358 - BEST PLACE TO GO
FOR A RUN
“Intoto is about 20
minutes’ drive outside
Addis on top of a
mountain. It’s very
beautiful, and perfect for
running.” - BEST PLACE TO RELAX
Addis Ababa Golf Club
+ 251 (0)11 320 1893Visit Flybmi.com to book flights
