Haile Gebrselassie Retirement Update

by: LetsRun.com
November 9, 2010

We wanted to give you an update on Haile Gebrselassie's retirement since our article Sunday night, where we analyzed the situation as best we could. If you are totally in the dark about the retirement announcement, Geb's injury, and the idea that he may reconsider, that is a great place to start (plus there is a video of the shocking announcement, where Geb said he was calling it quits).

The biggest news is that Gebrselassie today via twitter has acknowledged his mind is not 100% made up on retirement. He tweeted:

Then in his next tweet, he added:

Now it is time for me to think about a lot of things.I still love running. I will always run. Just give me some time to think things over.

Geb was supposed to stay in New York on Monday and had been scheduled to speak at a charity event in Washington, DC Monday evening. Instead, he moved up his flight and left on Sunday night. Track and Field News' Sean Hartnett talked to Geb on Sunday night and said the conversation was very raw and emotional.

US based Ethiopian freelance journalist Sabrina Yohannes also spoke to Gebrselassie on Sunday. She recounts in the NY Times that Haile's agent Jos Hermens believed Gebrselasise would take "time to reflect and would very likely reconsider his decision."

Both Hartnettt and Yohannes indicated to us at the World Marathon Majors luncheon that Gebrselassie, a very ~~emotional~~ sensitive person, feels like he let his fans and everyone in New York down. So instead of continuing to disappoint people, it's time to retire. When asked if it would make a difference to Gebrselassie if he knew that his legion of fans were not disappointed in him, but rather the outcome, and would love to see him race again, both Hartnett and Yohannes thought it might make a difference.

If anyone has any ideas how to best relay what Gebrselssie means to distance runners worldwide and how many of us would love to see him race again, feel free to email us. It's one thing for Gebrselassie to retire for his own reasons; it's another to retire because he thinks his fans are disappointed in him and don't want to see him run again.

In Case You Haven't Seen It: Haile's Emotional Retirement Announcement


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