Hanging With Haile Gebrselassie At Home

Besides training for marathons, he’s a businessman and a family man as well.

IAAF reporter Andreas Meier recently shadowed marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie around for a day in his home in Ethiopia’s captial city, Addis Ababa.

Meier reports that Gebrselassie has been “back in solid training for his next race,” which is the Vienna City Half Marathon. This is good news for Gebrselassie fans, since the 37-year-old Olympic champion has been struggling with a persistent knee injury, which forced him to not take part in the Tokyo Marathon in February.

But running and racing aside, Meier observers Gebrselassie in another light. “The first thing you notice when you visit him in Addis Ababa is that Gebrselassie is a busy and successful businessman,” Meier writes.

Gebrselassie owns a cinema, a fitness center,a Hyundai dealership, and even a resort at Lake Awassa.  His cell phone never seems to stop ringing.

Still, Gebrselassie stresses that his family comes first. He is the father of three girls and a boy. “Family always comes first for me, then running, then business,” he says.

For More: IAAF