Haile Gebrselassie (born April 18, 1973) is a long distance track and road running athlete born as one of ten children in Assela , Arsi, Ethiopia. He is considered by many one of the best distance runners of all time which may have been helped by his home village being 3,000 feet above sea level.

He gained international recognition in 1992 when he won the 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter races at the World Junior Championships. In 1994 he set his first world record by running a 12:56.96 in the 5,000-meters. Since then, Gebrselassie has gone on to set 14 more World Records and World Bests.

He was the first man to break both the 13 minute mark for the 5000 meter run and the 27 minute mark for the 10000 meter run, although not the first to break each of those marks separately.

On August 30 2003 Haile topped the polls when elected as a member of the IAAF Athletes Commission.

In 1999 Gebrselassie starred as himself in the movie "Endurance." The film chronicled his quest to win Olympic gold in the 10,000-meters.

Honors

• 1993
  • 1993 World Championships in Athletics
    • 10,000 metre gold medal
    • 5,000 metre silver medal
  • 1993 IAAF African Athletics Championship
    • 5,000 metre silver medal
    • 10,000 metre bronze medal
• 1995
  • 1995 World Championships in Athletics
    • 10,000m gold medal
• 1996
  • 1996 Summer Olympics
    • 10,000m gold medal
• 1997
  • 1997 World Championships in Athletics
    • 10,000m gold medal
  • 1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships
    • 3,000m gold medal
• 1999
  • 1999 World Championships in Athletics
    • 10,000m gold medal
  • 1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships
    • 1,500m gold medal
    • 3,000m gold medal
• 2000
  • 2000 Summer Olympics
    • 10,000m gold medal
• 2001
  • 2001 IAAF World Half Marathon winner

Personal Bests

Distance	Mark	Date
1500m	3:33.73	06-06-1999
Mile	3:52.39	06-06-1999
5000m	12:39.36	06-13-1998
10000m	26:22.75	06-01-1998
10km (road)	27:02	12-11-2002
Half Marathon	1:00:03	10-07-2002
Marathon	2:06:35	04-14-2002

Olympic medalists in athletics (men) | Olympic Champions in Men's 5 miles and 10000 m

As five miles: Henry Hawtrey | Emil Voigt

As 10,000 metres: Hannes Kolehmainen | Paavo Nurmi (twice) | Ville Ritola | Janusz Kusociński | Ilmari Salminen | Emil Zátopek (twice) | Vladimir Kuts | Pyotr Bolotnikov | Billy Mills | Naftali Temu | Lasse Virén (twice) | Muruse Yefter | Alberto Cova | Brahim Boutayeb | Khalid Skah | Haile Gebrselassie (twice) | Kenenisa Bekele