Haile Gebreselassie
Gebrselassie achieved major competition wins at distances between 1500 metres and the marathon, moving from outdoor, indoor and cross country running to road running in the latter part of his career. He has broken 25 world records and won numerous Olympic and World Championship titles, and is widely considered as one of the greatest distance runners in history.Gebrselassie originally decided not to run in the 2008 Olympics due to concern about the air quality effecting his health but later reversed that decision.
Early career
Gebrselassie was born as one of ten children in Asella, Arsi Province, Ethiopia.
As a child growing up on a farm he used to run ten kilometres to school every morning, and the same back every evening. This led to a distinctive running posture, with his left arm crooked as if still holding his schoolbooks.
Gebrselassie gained international recognition in 1992 when he won the 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre races at the 1992 junior World Championships in Seoul, and a silver medal in the junior race at the World Cross Country Championships.
The next year, in 1993, Gebrselassie won the first of what would eventually be four consecutive world championships titles in the men's 10,000 metres at the 1993, 1995, 1997, and 1999 World Championships.
At the 1993 World Championships, he also ran in the 5,000-metre race to finish a close second behind Ismael Kirui of Kenya. In 1994 he won a bronze medal at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Later that year he set his first world record by running a 12:56.96 in the 5,000-metres, breaking Saïd Aouita's record by two seconds.
In 1995, Gebrselassie ran the 10,000-metres in 26:43.53 in Hengelo, Netherlands lowering the world record by a full nine seconds. This world record at the Weltklasse meet in Zürich was voted "Performance of the Year" by Track & Field News magazine.
At the same Weltklasse meet in Zürich, an exhausted Gebrselassie, suffering from blisters obtained on the hard track in Atlanta (where he would win the Olympic 10,000 metres gold in 1996), had no answer to the 58-second lap of Daniel Komen with 5 laps to go as Komen went on to win and just miss Gebrselassie's record, finishing in 12:45.09. Komen, in turn, took Gebrselassie's record only nine days later when Komen ran a 12:39.74 performance in Belgium.
Middle career
The next year, 1998, saw Gebrselassie lowering the indoor world records for 2,000 and 3,000 metres, enjoying success outdoors by taking back both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres world records, as well as earning a share in the Golden League jackpot for winning all of his races in the Golden League series that summer.
In June 1998, in Hengelo, Netherlands, Gebrselassie set a 10,000 metres world record 26:22.75, breaking Paul Tergat's world record 26:27.85, running evenly paced 13:11/13:11 5K splits.
Just 13 days later, Gebrselassie took on the 5,000 metres mark of Komen in Helsinki, Finland. Croatian pacemaker Branko Zorko took the pace out slowly, hitting 1000 metres in 2:33.91 and dropping out at the mile.
His pacemakers could not maintain the pace, though, and Gebrselassie was left alone for a difficult solo effort 6 laps out. With 4 laps to go (8:40.00), Gebrselassie needed a sub-4 minute final 1,600 metres for the record.
With one lap to go and in great pain, Gebrselassie took off, recording a final lap of 56.77 seconds and a final 1,600 metres of 3:59.36 (= 4:00.96 mile) to race to a 12:39.36 world record.
In 1999, Gebrselassie starred as himself in the movie Endurance. The film chronicled his quest to win Olympic gold in the 10,000 metres in Atlanta.
On the track, he won a 1500/3000 metres double at the World Indoor Track Championships, defended his Outdoor World Track Championships 10,000 metres title, and remained undefeated in all his races (which ranged from the 1,500 up to 10,000 metres).
In 2000, Gebrselassie again won all of his races, ranking first in the world yet again in both the 5,000 and 10,000 metres. The narrow Olympic victory over Kenya's Paul Tergat came down to a blistering final kick, with Tergat's 26.3 second final 200 metres being topped by Gebrselassie's even faster 25.4.
The winning margin of victory was only 0.09 seconds, closer than the winning margin in the men's 100 metre dash final.
In 2001, Gebrselassie won the IAAF World half marathon and the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics.
On August 30, 2003, Gebrselassie topped the polls when elected as a member of the IAAF Athletes Commission. Also in 2003, at the World Championships in Paris, Gebrselassie was involved in one of the most remarkable 10,000 metres races of all time while gaining a silver medal behind countryman and protégé Kenenisa Bekele.
The last half of the 10,000 metres final at the championships was completed in a staggering 12:57.24 (12:57.2 for Bekele and 12:58.8 for Gebrselassie). According to the IAAF, "Not only was this split the fastest closing 5,000 metres in the championships 10,000m (the previous record was 13:12.12, recorded in Atlanta), but it was also the fastest 5,000 metres in a global championships surpassing the 12:58.13 Salah Hissou recorded when he won the 5,000m in Sevilla'99." (This remark remained true until a week later when the World Athletic Championships 5,000 metres medalists (including Bekele) all ran faster than the second 5,000 metres split in the previous week's 10,000 metres.) "The difference between the closing 5,000 metres splits (12:57.24) and the 5,000 metres World record (12:39.36) was 17.98 seconds, which is a record.
Shortly before the Athens games, Gebrselassie was unable to train for 3 weeks due to inflammation of his Achilles tendon. The injury was severe enough that he would not have competed otherwise, but did so because of significant pressure from his country.
This loss of the final period of training likely cost him a medal.
Later career
Haile Gebrselassie shortly before winning the 2005 Amsterdam Marathon
Since leaving the track after the 2004 Olympics, Gebrselassie has focused on road racing and the marathon. His adult marathons to date include London 2002, Amsterdam 2005 (1st place), London 2006, Berlin 2006 (1st place), Fukuoka 2006 (1st place), London 2007, Berlin 2007 (1st place and World Record) and Dubai 2008 (1st place).
In 2002, Gebrselassie made his debut at the marathon at the London Marathon.
He was unable to hold it, however,, as world record holder Khalid Khannouchi and Paul Tergat both eventually passed him. This included a British All-Comers record in the 10K at Manchester (27:25), a win in the Amsterdam Marathon in the fastest marathon time in the world for 2006 (2:06:20), and a new world best for 10 miles in Tilburg, The Netherlands (44:24).
(His unofficial split of 41:22 at the 15K mark was 7 seconds faster than the official world best.)
Gebrselassie started 2006 positively by beating the world half marathon record by a full 21 seconds, recording a time of 58 minutes and 55 seconds on January 15th. During the race he also broke Paul Tergat's 20 km record, both records having stood since 1998.
The race was organized where Gebrselassie and six other runners would run 5 kilometres and then cross the starting line of the 20-K Alphen race in Alphen aan den Rijn of the Netherlands.
On April 23, 2006, he finished 9th in the London Marathon with a time of 2:09:05 (the race was won by Kenyan Felix Limo, who clocked 2:06:39). Gebrselassie referred to the 9th-place finish as "the worst race of my career". However, on September 24 he came back with a win in the Berlin Marathon in the fastest time of the year, 2:05:56.
This was followed by a win in the Fukuoka Marathon in Japan in 2:06:52. His time in Berlin made him only the fifth man in history to run under 2:06 for the marathon.
In London on April 22, 2007 Gebrselassie challenged the 2006 London Marathon winner Felix Limo, 2005 London Marathon winner Martin Lel, 2004 Athens gold medalist Stefano Baldini, 2006 New York Marathon winner Marilson Gomes dos Santos, and the current marathon world record holder Paul Tergat in what organizers anticipated would be an exciting race. However Gebrselassie dropped out at the 18 mile stage complaining of a stitch and inability to breathe, which turned out to be an allergic reaction to the pollen in the air.
This record attempt was successful as Gebrselassie passed the hour mark at 21,285 m (13 miles 397 yards), eclipsing the previous best of 21,101 m, set by Mexican Arturo Barrios in La Fléche, France, on 30 March 1991. Furthermore, Gebrselassie covered 50 laps (20,000 m) in 56:25.98, another world best, well within the previous 56:55.6 also set by Barrios in 1991.
His win in the Lisbon Half Marathon (59:15) in March of 2008 gave him a perfect record of 9-0 in winning all of his half marathons.
On September 30, 2007 Gebrselassie won the Berlin Marathon in 2:04:26 (4:44.8 per mile), setting the world record and shaving 29 seconds off Paul Tergat's record, set on the same course in 2003. While Gebrselassie agreed that a sub 2:04 was possible, he stated that the conditions would need to be perfect for such a time. The event was held on 18 January 2008 and was won by Gebrselassie in a time of 2:04:53, making it the second fastest marathon in history.
The performance made Gebrselassie the only man older than 30 to break 27 minutes in the 10,000 metres.
Because of Beijing's air pollution levels, Gebrselassie has decided to withdraw from the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Gebrselassie failed to earn a medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics 10,000 metres final, ending sixth with a time of 27:06.68, victory going to his countryman and current world record holder, Kenenisa Bekele.