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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 5, 2010Haile GebrselassieNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Q. So I want to know more about your brother. HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Oh, yeah, you didn't know? He ran New York in 1991, I think '91, between '91 and '92. Q. How old is he and what is his name? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: T-E-K-E-Y-E. Q. How many marathons did he run? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: He ran London, he ran two hours and 11 minutes, 2 hours 12 in London, but he ran 2:11 in Holland. He stopped many years back. He ran, you know, like one time he was ninth in Tokyo World Championships. Maybe you can find, you know, his name in the World Championship in Tokyo 1981. He was in ninth position. Q. What did he tell you about New York? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Well, you know, he forgets (laughing). Q. How old is he now? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Oh, yeah. He's now 40. Q. 40? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah. He retired a long time ago. He lives in Holland. Q. What does he do? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Oh, he works in normal work in Holland. Just he sometimes comes to Ethiopia for a couple of months and then since '93 he's lived in Holland. Q. How did he influence you as a runner? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Well, I started training with. Miruts Yifter because he started. I was training to become one of our athletes named. After he won in 1980 Moscow Olympics, and I was thinking about running. And he started as a marathon runner. I joined him for training. And he left from my village to Addis Ababa, and I had to stay two years before I came to Addis Ababa, and he was the one, you know to put me in training. Q. And now your manager is in Holland, yes? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah. Q. And the reason you met Jos, does that have anything to do with your brother living in Holland? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: No, I met him in 1992 before my brother went to Holland. Jos he came to Ethiopia. And that year, you know, I just I had only one competition in -- what do you call it -- world cross country in Belgium. Then he saw me doing my training. You know, because he used to be a runner, he knows who would be a good runner in the future. He asked me why don't you work with us, and I was very happy. But I didn't know managers were so important for running. But, I said to him, okay, let's do it. Then since 1992 we've been together. Q. Was your business growing and growing back home, are you still 100% athlete? How do you manage that? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah, but you can't put you know 50-50 now. But the running is my top priority still. I don't have a good day without training. But still business is also, you know, once you start, you have a responsibility of all of those people. Not only it's a question of losing money or making profit, it's a question of people getting their salary on time and their benefits and their insurance, and health care, everything. I have like -- I'm not only a father of four kids, I'm already a father of many people around me. I have a responsibility. If the business fails, it's a failure of the of the life of those people there. Q. How many people work for your company? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Since we opened the hotel now, it's 600 -- I don't know exactly, between 650, I think. Around 650. Q. The hotel is in Addis? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: No, the hotel is like 150 miles from Addis. And other like construction is in Addis, and the school is another place, some small others. Q. Do you have two or three schools? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah, two schools. Q. One in Asella? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: The other one is in Bahir Dar, another 250 miles. Q. Where did you get do you think the sense of responsibility that you were after something larger than yourself? Where did that come from do you think? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Well, this is especially after I had my first kid, this is the kind of responsibility. I mean like you have a feeling when you have your first child. If you look at the child before, if you don't have a child, you don't give the kind of respect you know for another child. But if you have your own, you start to feel something. Plus, I don't know. This is the kind of nature. You have also the same thing what I have. Q. Regarding these responsibilities, does it affect your abilities on the road also. I mean, how does it? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah, yeah, it is true. Yeah, surely, yes, because now instead of to concentrate my sport, it's my thinking has changed to others. Like never think about the last two or three years, especially, always think about people, business. If I was left to pay them their salary today, it's not easy. You see, this is really, yeah, it's not easy. But thanks to God, I'm okay. I'm good. The good thing is there are people around me. My wife, you know, she's working in the company, she's taking care of many things. My brother, my father-in-law, and other people. They have more -- I mean, they have also the responsibility for the company. Q. You said you feel like you are 20 years old. Is that as a runner? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: As a runner, yes. Q. Are there days that you wake up after maybe not much sleep? I heard last night was not so easy to sleep, is that because you feel older? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: No, you know, I can't sleep -- you know, used to be very long. But nowadays after four or five hours, yeah. I don't know maybe it's because of something. Of course, I try to relax or I try to take some rest. But if you are not -- if you are not rested mentally how can you sleep easy? First you have to clean your mind and then you can sleep easily. Q. You just have so much in your mind from business to appearances here? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah, forget it. Q. Some years ago you said in an interview that for really to help the Ethiopian people, you have to be president of Ethiopia. What about your political ambitions now? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: In the future? Well, you see you know what, it's not because I want to be the president of Ethiopia or I want to be a politician. I'm thinking you know, to help in my country better than what I'm doing now. Which way? I'm always, you know, hungry. Like what do you call it -- hungry to see my country very quickly. Like especially when you compare what we are now and what are others. It's kind of like we have to improve this. We have to improve that. We have to tell to the people what's happening in America, what's happening in Europe and Asia. People need to know the difference between my country and the difference between the other world. Then they start to -- you know what I'm saying. That's why I want to involve in a different way. If it's to become, you know, a politician, I don't which one is the best way. But let me keep doing the way I'm doing, I can change many things, I believe. In the future maybe many more, we'll see. Q. Is your father still alive? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah. Q. Does he now agree that it's okay for you to be a runner? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Oh, he's the one to -- one of my advisors now is him. He's 84. Still he's fit. Yeah, he lives in Addis. Q. He moved to Addis? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah, he moved to Addis in the last two years, three years almost. Q. But he's okay with you running? He's happy now? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: I told you he's the one to give me very good advice. To take care of myself and to take in some rest and things like that, yeah. Q. When you were a boy he didn't want you to run? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: The time when I started, yes. He was the one who stopped me running. Well, of course, I don't blame that because you see for his understanding the time when I started running is wasting time. He realized that running is something, especially after I won my first World Championships in Stuttgart. Wait till you see my first Mercedes car. Q. He changed his mind? HAILE GEBRSELASSIE: Yeah, he changed his mind. How is possible is that? How possible is that? Yeah, possible. End of FastScripts |
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