Physically you would not have given him a euro, or eight birrs in Ethiopian currency, in height he does not even reach one metre sixty-five. It was at that moment that something was triggered in his head: the race to get out of poverty, out of misery, running to help his family.Īlthough his father wanted him with him on the farm, at 16 years old he decided to train in the police force: it is the first step that will lead Haile Gebrselassie to become the Usain Bolt of the middle ground and marathon, shattering all the records possible and imaginable. As a prize, he received five birr, almost half a euro. "Try it, what is a kilometre and a half to you?" Tayeke, the elder brother who was with him, told him. It was almost a game: in the village there was a competition for 1,500 metres. That's how Haile won his first race as a young boy. And the arm bent almost to ninety degrees. He has done it so many times in his life that today, aged 45, his posture while running is exactly the same, with his left hand slightly lowered and firm. What do books have to do with it? They matter, because during the race he always kept them tight to his chest. There was something special about that child, shy and thin like a nail, it was obvious.
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