Haile Gebrselassie, My Other Favorite Athlete

Haile Gebrselassie is a retired Ethiopian long-distance track and road running athlete that I truly admire for what he had achieved over the years. I've seen him during different competitions and was always rooting for him. Athletes can be of many kind, some are stars and act like they are above everyone, others are humble and don't act like superstars.

Haile was a humble guy, have never heard anything bad about him. Growing up in a poor country like Ethiopia must have been tough. I've seen documentaries about how kids are training in Africa and their life is very different from the life kids have in developed countries. While in developed countries kids and athletes in general can have the best tracks, fields, gyms, equipment and trainers, kids in Africa were running barefoot in dirt, hoping one day they can be famous like the country's well known athletes.

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Hail was no different, he has 9 siblings and grew up running 10 kilometers to school every day and the same distance back home. So basically he had to run a half marathon not as a training session but as a necessity to get to school and back. I know another athlete, his name is Ivan Patzaichin, he's
a Romanian retired sprint canoeist. I've seen an interview with him in which he said he used to go to school using a canoe as he had no other choice, no other transportation method.

His hard work has paid off, he is an Olympic and World champion and a record holder as the 20,000m, the one-hour race and 10 mile run records are still his.

I remember watching an interview with him after he retired from competitions and he was building a hotel, which is not finished.

Haile Hotels and Resorts, is a privately owned and situated in various part of Ethiopia. It was established in 2010, by opening Haile Resort in Hawassa. Since then, the company has increased its destinations to four, by opening Haile Hotel Shashemene, Ziway Resort and Yaya Africa Athletics Village. source

He knew what to do with his money and had the knowledge too, I admire him for this and this is not the only business he owns.

Currently, Haile is president of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, has been selling Hyundai cars in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since 2009, and has become a small-lot coffee farmer in Ethiopia. His coffees can be found under his estate name, Haile Estate, such as the Sun Dried Ethiopian Haile Estate Coffee, which is distributed by Starbucks Reserve. source

It's so great to see his success story and I bet he's helping his country a lot. Also hope he had the necessary time to learn driving. Why am I saying that? He got a luxury car during his competition years, it was a gift from a sponsor or something and he was keeping the car in a garage as he had no driving license at the time of the interview. he said he had no time to learn to drive :)