“For my father, running was just wasting my time. Maybe I would have become a carpenter,” says one of the greatest distance runners in history, Haile Gebrselassie, 47. Running to and from school, 20 km a day, five times a week, working hard and loving every little detail about his country Ethiopia helped him achieve 27 World Records in 13 different distances, two Olympic gold medals and four World Championships titles.
Gebrselassie was a guest at the AIPS e-College on Tuesday, May 5, where he shared details about his extremely successful journey and his persistence to overcome challenges with young reporters.
FIGHT AGAINST DOPING
Gebrselassie has always pushed himself to his limit and he has always wanted sports to be fair. As the president of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, his administration had zero tolerance for doping. In 2017, Ethiopia approved a prison sentence given for drug cheats in athletics.
“We are not asking the whole world to have the same system as what we did here, in Ethiopia. I am not saying it’s right or wrong. Everyone has their opinion. Every country has their system. Of course, internationally we have very good punishments and sanctions – life ban or four or two-year bans. But when it comes to Ethiopia, why not to have stronger punishments to make them understand,” says Gebrselassie, who beliefs being put in prison could help wrongdoers change.
In his opinion, the biggest punishment of an athlete can be public hatred. That is even worse than going to jail or getting a competition ban, he says. “If he is very known, it is very bad. If someone, World Athletics or WADA would say that Haile, you did doping, I’ll die. How could I show my face in front of the people of Ethiopia? You can’t imagine what happens here in Ethiopia. As an athlete, as Haile Gebreselassie, I want to see clean athletes! And doping is not the only thing people are trying to use to their advantage, there is also technology.”
HUMAN ABILITY VS. TECHNOLOGY
Having to run barefoot until age 12, Gebrselassie strongly believes that phenomenal training shoes and technology may not prove the best sportsmanship and talent.
“Many years ago I was asked about technology and my answer was that in the future there is difficult to find an athlete that can prove himself. It’s a competition out there. Most of the companies are trying to produce shoes that make the athlete move faster. But the athletes have to sweat. Human ability can outdo technology. Let them sweat, let them work hard, let them show their performance and ability, not to show the performance of technology!”
In fact, Gebrselassie points out that he felt much more comfortable running on barefoot. “The shoes got me a lot of problems, for example, my toe got hurt. I liked it for barefoot. When I was in the countryside, I had to cross all rivers and when it was the rainy season, the roads were dirty. You could cross a river, clean your feet, and run again! But with shoes on, you cannot do it.”
Gebrselassie says that running helped him to be more disciplined. “I ran 10 kilometres to school and another 10 kilometres back, five times a week. I did this for 10 years. When I graduated, I had the chance to move to the town and for the last two years in high school, when I lived 2 kilometres away, I was more late than ever!”
RIVALRY AND FRIENDSHIP WITH TERGAT
Throughout Gebrselassie’s career, he had a head-to-head matchup with Kenyan Paul Tergat. Remembering one of the highlights of his career, his 10,000 meters gold medal in Sydney 2000, when Gebrselassie lunged past Tergat just before the finish line, he praises the Kenyan.
“There should have been two gold! Paul also won the race. Sometimes we were spying on Kenya, they were spying on Ethiopia, just to get to know the tactics. They knew our strengths and weaknesses and we knew theirs. We always won the race through their weakness. If anybody wants to win something, you need to find their weaknesses. I knew that Paul is not that strong in the last kick and that’s why I won the race in Atlanta and Sydney.”
In his opinion, both Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes need each other to keep their fight on. “The Kenyans are not strong enough without the Ethiopians. When one misses, then the other one is also automatically out!” he says. Even nowadays, he has his eye on new rivalry – Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele and Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, but wouldn’t bet on who would win.
“Kipchoge is very smart, very wise! Not only is he running, but he also has a character and a personality. My answer is: let the best win! Who sweats enough, who works harder, who gets through training with discipline, that wins.”
SETBACKS
“Don’t be injured mentally. If you’re mentally injured, it hurts you,” says Gebrselassie. But for him, physical injuries were the biggest challenge of his career.
In 2010, the Ethiopian was on his way to win the New York Marathon but had to quit in tears after 16 kilometers due to an inflamed knee. Gebrselassie went to a press conference and in no mood for an explanation, decided to retire. “The organizer invited me to the press conference and many journalists were waiting for me and they asked me why didn’t I finish the race. 3 days ago I had told them that I was gonna win… You see the frustration!”
Still, he reconsidered his decision and ran for five more years, before retiring after finishing 16th in the Great Manchester Run on May 10, 2015.
He says: “The injures are the hardest moment and also a bad thing for the athlete. When you’re injured, it looks like everything is over. But I always try to find something positive out of it!”
DO YOUR WORK!
Gebrselassie likes to emphasize on the importance of training. “As an athlete, the most important part is to finish your training, you have to be prepared for anything. There is a way how to avoid your frustration: do your work. Do hard work! Your goal is to be the best, whether you’re the journalist or you’re the athlete.”
Gebrselassie follows that mentality even now that his running career is over, wearing a blue suit and a matching tie, he is a successful and busy entrepreneur, having at least 3000 employees at his real estate business, Haile Hotels and Resorts, and coffee farms. Yet, he says: “I’m still in good shape because my body is still my weapon.”
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Who or what was your first inspiration?
I was inspired by Miruts Yifter who won the 5000 m and 10 000 m distances in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Do you think that the extremely hot weather conditions have an impact on the athletes, for example, last year at the Doha World Championships many athletes weren’t able to compete due to the hot weather and also their performance was impacted?
The government of Qatar spent a lot of money to make it better, they couldn’t make the same thing. The men’s marathon was okay but the women’s race was terrible, very hot. When you are a long-distance runner, the weather affects you a lot. When it’s too hot, you sweat too much and you have no water in your system anymore, it’s easy to collapse. Can you walk longer in the strong sun? Impossible!
When you run, you need to bulk energy, because of the run but also because of the heat. In the future, the World Athletics have to think about the temperature. They have to ask the athletes, who are going to run that race, it has to be something comfortable for the athlete. What if some athlete could have died? They could also arrange the time instead of August to September, or October to November. But it’s the same problem with many other Olympic fields. I hope that in the future they understand it.
How did you set your mind before the marathon?
Your body depends on your mentality. Everything you tell your body, he listens to you. At the end of the day your body is like a soldier, who does always what he is supposed to do. When you train, don’t tell yourself: “You cannot do it.” Tell yourself: “Why not?”. Of course, you need to prepare, you need to be ready. Marathon is not easy.
What does it take to be a good long-distance runner?
Attitude and the background, the way you grow up, the food you eat. When you grow up here in Ethiopia and Kenya, we live 2000 meters upon the sea level, we are used to the lack of oxygen. Also, the food we eat, we don’t have big muscles but nicely shaped bodies. And also when you have to go to school like this – by running. I didn’t start the athletics for running, I did it for going to school.
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