Bekele--speak for yourself.

Here's the thing...all of us can only dream about what it's like to be on top. It's not like he's got a single bronze at the Olympics, or a WC from 8 years ago and he wants to reach the top...the guy has over 20 gold medals from multiple Olympics and WC, and undefeated over his primary distance, virtually undefeated at 5000, with world records for both indoors and outdoors, and more times under 13/27 than any other person in history... Oh yea, those 6 consecutive years of double XC golds. What other reason does Bekele have to keep running track!? No one is realistically close to his records either.

Throw in the fact that he grew up in what is or nearly is a third world country...it's no wonder he runs for dough and not for show.

I have to agree with this. If Bekele was completely fluent in English, I would take this statement as nothing short of confermation that he is doped. I have hope for him only because he doesn't seem fluent in English, because anyone who actually says and believes this statement will have only one reason to not dope: fear of being caught. In this day of undetectable drugs, that's no reason at all.

i think you need to realize where he is coming from. Running is more than just a passion for people in East Africa, its how they eat. We get to go out for a nice run and when we get back mommy has dinner on the table for us, its not like that for these people.

The guy is from on of the poorest countries in the world. Please have some perspective. In america we have no fear of starvation. Money can have a different meaning in situations like his than it does for us. If he could not make money running, he simply could not do it.

Bekele is using an enormous amount of his earnings to build businesses and a sports complex to promote athletics in ethiopia and encourage future generations.

Bolt wants to see how many sports cars he can get!!!

I give up, its useless arguing on this board. I don't know why I'm writing this. I don't care how you all respond. I just wish so many people didn't take statements at face value. Where is the crap for bolts statement. He is funny, and charming, but he is hoarding his wealth. Bekele is giving back.

Wejo and Rojo, why do you hate bekele? You pretend to shower him with praise, but in a sardonic way. Always posting quotes and statements that slightly demean him or insinuate drug use. Maybe your coming around. I don't know. I know you were big Haile fans. I'm sick of drug allegations from all on this board though. Can't we embrace the hero of our sport the way most sports do. appreciate his ability to perform in the face of pressure from an entire nation. His calm, his resilience, his fire. I for one have, and always will, see him as a true inspiration.

When you are faster than every other person in the world, you can say anything you want.

"When you are faster than every other person in the world, you can say anything you want."

Total naivete on display.

Those commenters suggesting that Bekele's detractors somehow begrudge him his earnings are completely missing the mark.

Nobody here has denied him the fortune of his winnings.

It is his blanket statement that he applies to all runners that 1) pisses people off, and 2) raises the serious possibility of his subordinating other values involved in competition to the pre-eminent value of monetary gain.

Subordinating other competition values like honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, valour, camaraderie, joy, etc..

As long as he's clean, he's entitled to whatever he can win, but he can still be a loser while doing it.

And when his own comments cast legitimate doubt on his cleanliness, even his entitlement to his winnings comes into question.

If I were the "king" of the Olympics, I would ban him from competition for this statement, in violation of the Olympic values of competition, and reinstate him if and only when he made a complete and unequivocal retraction.

Typical f***in lestrun losers. I'm not going to get too mad because you're probably some stupid 16 year old kid (still on JV) who has no knowledge of what it takes to survive in a third world country. Neither do I but I rather agree with bekele and his motivation on this issue than some freakin snot nose geek who think he knows everything. BTW undetectable drugs are widespread throughout the world. How do you know our athletes are using any dumb ass? Oh I forgot, they ARE.

LR.C lameness at work.

I should think that either this is a translation (and soooo much subtlety is lost in this process) or it is a statement made in a non-native language for Bekele.

Your cultural naivete masks a greater idiocy.

I'm not sure he's translating his thoughts into accurate English, frankly. I mean, sure, we all know it's about getting paid. Money is the spice; money, at least at the beginning, is also something that transforms lives--especially East African lives, given the per capita income in Kenya and Ethiopia. And it's quite clear that Bekele decided to go after the big payday this season in a deliberate way, running the brilliant races required to bring home the bacon.

Still, I have a hard time believing that he meant to sound quite as cynical and mercenary as this quote makes him sound. And it certainly DOES make him sound both cynical and mercenary.

Does Geb continue to set WRs simply for the payday? Doesn't individual glory, national pride, and....gasp....God have something to do with the urge to triumph, too?

And I'm glad your not the "king of the Olympics." How horrible would that be. Guilty before proven innocent, ban people from saying a statement which no one really cares about except ex-distance runners or should I say FAILURES as yourself. You know what, I don't even know why I'm responding to worthless bitter assholes like you. Jealousy and envy is a bitch I guess. And please don't try deny the fact that you're jealous. It's obvious. Otherwise why bring his name up and try to bash him every chance you get. Well its been fun. Adios.

the funny thing is Kenenisa does not give a rat's azz about what any non-Ethiopians thinks about him. Do you all remember when he said, he wanted to double in the 10k and 5k during the world championship - Because the Ethiopian women team didn't get gold and if he concentrate on his jackpot, that people back home would think that he just care for the money than the Championship. Thus, he did double just to please the folks back home. Now, a letsrun troler want to talk smack, like Kenenisa is going to come here and read about one cyber character is going to think about him.

I think the point was that when you've already won everything, money is about the only thing that keeps you going. What else do you have to gain? Nothing. Bekele is already legendary. He never said that this was a blanket statement, just a fact, that those who are very good at what they do become quickly bored with it if they win all the time. The only impetus to keep going is usually only the stimulus of money. This is essentially his job, and he's providing himself with a nice 401k right now, so anybody sitting in an office and blowing off work to post here has no right to complain about somebody earning a salary.

zigzag wrote:

the funny thing is Kenenisa does not give a rat's azz about what any non-Ethiopians thinks about him. Do you all remember when he said, he wanted to double in the 10k and 5k during the world championship - Because the Ethiopian women team didn't get gold and if he concentrate on his jackpot, that people back home would think that he just care for the money than the Championship. Thus, he did double just to please the folks back home. Now, a letsrun troler want to talk smack, like Kenenisa is going to come here and read about one cyber character is going to think about him.

Its useless to even argue with these assholes. They practically have a huge orgy on these message boards when one of their distance runners break 13:00 min but criticizes another athlete for CONSISTENTLY winning world championship medals and running the fastest 5k times (2004-2009) for the past six years in a row and yet are still cynical and skeptical about him. And here's the real kicker, they expect him to be doping because he doesn't run a freakin 12:37-12:41 every time he races. I personally believe he was misquoted and the journalists didn't really get what he was trying to convey because his English speaking skills is not yet polished.

I can't know that all our guys are clean, but being fairly close friends with about a third of the distance team we sent to Berlin, I can be somewhat sure they aren't cheating. You must know that Bekele has enough money to never have a single family member of his go hungry for several generations without any of them working, so don't give me the third world country crap. It only works before they make it big. By the way, before I saw this statement, I honestly thought Bekele was clean, and I hope for his sake he really didn't mean it.

KKK runners need to do some speed work. You KKK runners are take it all the time. Yes you get your sh**** at 7/11. All you guys are not clean. Just keep doing your slow as kkk tempo run.

When one of Sweden´s top runners was at a training camp in S:t Moritz last year he spoke to a couple of Quatar runners. When he told them that he had an ordinary job besides running they looked at him like he was some kind of nutcase. "If you have a job, why do you run?"

Swede. wrote:

When one of Sweden´s top runners was at a training camp in S:t Moritz last year he spoke to a couple of Quatar runners. When he told them that he had an ordinary job besides running they looked at him like he was some kind of nutcase. "If you have a job, why do you run?"

baha - Sweden's top runner. Let me guess, it was a training camp for the Qatari women?

Seems to me that if Bekele, with all the skrilla riding on him, were doping, his handlers would make sure he did not make such obviously compromising statements. I'm for he's clean.