Athletics: Gebrselassie set to go extra mile for Ethiopia

The world's greatest distance athlete, risen from humble origins to national icon, has a vision of running his country

If he were not telling me himself, fixing me with the searingly honest, dark-eyed gaze that will surely serve him well should he fulfil his ambition to become a politician when he gives up running, I might find the story of Haile Gebrselassie hard to believe.

It already seems like a publicist's, or a novelist's, confection; and it hasn't finished yet. He is, by a street, the most popular man in Ethiopia (and that's just the street named after him), and if he does go into politics, he will doubtless wind up as president. But maybe that will represent a comedown; after all, most of his countrymen already know him as 'the emperor', and there are some who think that is an insufficient expression of their adulation, preferring 'the vision' or 'the god'. When he wants to take a run through the capital Addis Ababa – which, being so high above sea level, is the perfect place for endurance-training – he has to creep out at 4am, otherwise he cannot make his way through the throng of people wanting to shake his hand.

That's the story now. But the four-times World and two-times Olympic 10,000 metres champion, reckoned by most people in athletics to be the greatest distance runner of all time, grew up in poverty, in a country ravaged by drought, famine and war. The family lived in Asela, some 150 miles south of Addis Ababa. His father was a subsistence farmer; his mother died when he was seven, shortly after giving birth to her 10th child. And young Haile ran 10 kilometres to school every day, clutching his books to his chest with his left hand, which is why he still runs with his left arm fixed, as if still holding his precious books.

I love this detail; how many other world champions were so literally fashioned on their way to school? I ask him whether he was ever late for morning classes? He beams. He has a famously bright smile, which his Dutch manager, Jos Hermens, with acceptable hyperbole, describes as the smile which lights up athletics.

"Yes, I was sometimes late," he says. His English is hesitant, broken, but still remarkably good. "But although I was sometimes late ..." – the smile fades a watt or two – "...it was not because I was lazy." Heavens, no. The thought never occurred to me. "School started at eight, and before that there was the national anthem, so I had to be there at 7.30. I used to leave home at 6.30, but the way to school was not flat. There was a river to cross. It was difficult, especially in the rainy season."

Of course, there were plenty of Ethiopian and other African kids who ran long distances to school, but this boy had something different, not least a perfect physique for distance running: long legs, a squat, wiry torso and unusual lung power. His teachers encouraged him to run competitively, which caused a rift with his father, Bekele, for whom running was only a means to an end, the end being either schoolwork or farmwork.

Bekele would have thrashed him, adds Gebrselassie, had he known that his son had pinched his cherished radio to listen to commentary of the 1980 Olympics, in which the Ethiopian Miruts Yifter won both the 5,000m and 10,000m. "Yifter was my idol," he tells me. "I was so impressed by him. There was a song about him, which played over and over in my mind."

He has his own song now, and buildings, as well as a street, named after him. Moreover, in Addis Ababa 'the emperor' has used his prize, sponsorship and appearance money to build an empire. Gebrselassie's company, with more than 200 full-time employees, has erected the city's first cinema complex, its first bowling alley, cafes and office buildings.

And, just as importantly, he has built bridges with his father. When he won a Mercedes at the 1993 World Championship, he told the still-sceptical Bekele that the car would be his. The Mercedes arrived in Addis three months later. "And as soon as it arrived, my father said, 'Good, now you can support not just yourself but me too'."

Another dazzling beam. We are talking at the Copthorne Hotel, Birmingham, where he has just given a press conference in the indulgent, almost loving gaze of his manager. "His strongest quality," says Hermens, "is that he is always so relaxed. It amazes me that he seems immune to the pressure and stress that all athletes face. He respects his rivals, but he fears no distance, no opponent." The ultimate manifestation of his strengths came in the 10,000m final of the 1996 Olympics in the heat and humidity of Atlanta. Most experts reckon that it remains the greatest race ever run at the distance.

There have been closer finishes, but the second half of the race, in which Gebrselassie had to cope with the spoiling tactics of the Kenyan team, and finally overtook the Kenyan Paul Tergat at the bell, only to be chased hell for leather to the line, made it unforgettable.

Unforgettably fast, too. Gebrselassie's final 5,000m was run in a faster time than both Dieter Baumann's 5,000m gold in Barcelona four years earlier, and the 5,000m world championship win of Ismael Kiruis the year before. Yet, in winning, Gebrselassie for once lost the aura of relaxation to which Hermens refers. On that final lap his eyes were popping and he was gasping for air.

None the less, the former runner David Moorcroft, for one, reckoned that the world was seeing a genius at the height of his powers. "If Pele was the complete footballer, Ali the equivalent in boxing, then Gebrselassie represents my idea of perfection in distance running," wrote Moorcroft. "He has style, balance, great tactical appreciation and no apparent weakness." If anything, those words seem even truer now than they did then. Nearly seven years on, Gebrselassie is still at the height of his powers.

Last month, also here in Birmingham, he broke the two miles world record in 8min 4.69sec. Tomorrow, he competes in the Indoor World Championships 3,000m final. I ask what still drives him? It's hardly as if he has anything left to prove.

Ah, but actually he does. "The marathon is the most important to me," he says. "I want to win one more Olympic 10,000m, and another world championship. But the marathon, that would be good." It would be stretching a point to say that the event is his Achilles heel, but he has never won one. Admittedly, he has run in just two, the first in Addis Ababa when he was 16. It was his first sight of the city, the first time he had even encountered electricity. He finished in two hours, 52 minutes, no disgrace for a teenager running his debut marathon, but well down the field.

His father, when he got back to Asela with badly blistered feet, was incandescent. One of his brothers was training to be a doctor, another wanted to become a teacher. People in their country were dying of starvation. How could marathon-running ever be of use to anyone?

Well, at last year's London Marathon, Gebrselassie reportedly received £200,000 just for taking part, and as with all his riches, ploughed it straight into his companies back home. "I employ a lot of people, but I want to give jobs to more," he tells me. "Unemployment in Ethiopia is very bad."

He completed his second marathon in two hours, six minutes and 35 seconds, an Ethiopian record and the fastest time ever for a senior runner making his marathon debut. But he didn't win. He came third. And, as much as anything rankles in the mind of this almost preternaturally sunny man, that does.

"My problems started at 40km (around 25 miles)," he says, with – could it be? yes it is! – a slight frown. "I ran over stone, not asphalt, and it felt not so good. But at least I learnt that the most important part of the marathon is the last part. I will be better next time, which might be later this year, in the autumn."

The London Marathon was shown live on Ethiopian television, and there was sadness, verging on national mourning, when he didn't win. Indeed, on his return, he was assailed by indignant fans. "They said, 'Are you selfish? Why didn't you win?' They didn't care that it was my first marathon, and that marathon-running is different. They expected me to win. They don't like to see me lose."

Bearing this in mind, I say, his foray into politics will probably end up with him becoming the leader of his country. "I don't know. My family, my wife, don't like what I'm saying about going into politics. But it is not because I want to be in politics, it is because I want to do something more for my people, and there is more chance to do it if I become a politician. All I say is, let me try. I'm not talking about doing it now, but maybe in 10 years when I become 40. I will know more things then. Maybe I won't be saying what I'm saying now.

"Of course, I know it is not easy. There are many problems in my country, and they won't be solved in a day or a year. But I want to share what I have seen when I travel around the world, tell people what Europe was like, what America was like, and how they became rich."

Gebrselassie's first trip out of Ethiopia was for the junior world championships in 1992, held in Antwerp. And his excitement about racing the world's best juniors was dwarfed by his excitement about flying. As a small child, watching a plane fly over Asela, he told his father that one day he too would like to look down on the earth from such a height. His father laughed, dismissing the notion as absurd.

So what was it like, that inaugural flight? "It was not as interesting as I thought. I didn't expect it to last for six hours. But I was very surprised by some things, like the toilet. To use a toilet in a plane... I thought, 'How is it possible? A toilet goes in the ground.' I even asked the hostess if I could open the window a little bit."

He hoots with laughter, and rises to leave. He is sorry, but he has to leave the hotel to give a TV interview. There is time for one final question.

What, I wonder, does he think about while he is running? "I think about lots of things," he says. "But not about business, because if you think about business you only think of the problems, of how much money is there. Mostly I think about what my family looks like."

He has three daughters, and would love a son, but has said that he does not want to go on fathering children until one arrives. "There are already too many children in my country," he says. "There is not enough food and money for them all."

Of course, Gebrselassie could have 200 children and comfortably manage to feed and clothe them, but that, emphatically, is not the point.

Haile Gebrselassie the life and times

Born: 18 April 1973, Arssi, Ethiopia.

Lives: Has a house in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, with his wife, Alem, and their three daughters. Runs a real estate business.

1990: At 17, moves to his brother's home in Addis Ababa, where he trains with Ethiopia's junior athletics team.

1992: Finishes first in the 5,000m and 10,000m race at the World Junior Championships in Seoul.

1993: Romps to victory in the 10,000m at the 1993 World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, and finishes second in the 5,000m.

1995: Wins gold in the 10,000m World Championships in Gothenburg.

1996: First Olympic gold in the 10,000m in Atlanta, United States, but is unable to compete in the 5,000m because of blistered feet which he attributes to the hard surface.

1997: Wins the World Championships 10,000m in Athens.

1998: Runs the 10,000m in 26min 22.75sec and the 5,000m in 12min 39.36sec, making him the first man to complete the events in under 13 and 27 minutes respectively, and the first man since 1978 to hold both world records. Named Athlete of the Year.

1999: Sets his 15th world record in the Seville World Championships, winning his title at 10,000m. Stars as himself in the Disney film Endurance, which chronicles his rise to Olympic glory. Becomes UN National Goodwill Ambassador for his country.

2000: Second Olympic gold in Sydney.

2001: Loses his world 10,000m title to the Kenyan Charles Kamanthi in Edmonton, finishing third.

2002: Finishes third on his London Marathon debut. His time of 2hr 6min 35sec is the fastest ever men's senior debut. In December, sets a world best of 27min 02sec for 10,000m in Doha, earning a £610,000 bonus, the most earned by an athlete in a single day.

He says: "A high political post brings a lot of powers and I can use some of it to help my people who have been suffering for a long time. I want to do something to alleviate poverty and that is what inspires me to enter politics."

They say: "Haile Gebrselassie impresses me very much. He seems to run from within himself." (Emil Zatopek)