Geb's Age

I admit that I can't figure out which of you is just trying to annoy me, and which of you is honestly dumb as a fencepost.

Again, though, if anyone here knows something about this subject, I'd appreciate a response. I don't have anything at stake in the matter. I'm just curious.

Achilles III wrote:

he suddenly looks a bit older than his age. Not really surprising considering he probably has his face screwed up with effort for 5 hours a day.

Nice. Geb's mom, circa 1979 (or was it 1976?): "Dammit, I'm telling you, if you keep it up your face will STAY like that!"

Achilles III wrote:

I'm a little puzzled by Yifter's quote. If I asked him how many chickens and goats he owned would he have told me his age? "Men may ask me how many animals I own but I will only tell them I am 42."

Yifter has noted John Lennon as one of his boyhood...ah, college...make that grad-school heroes.

I can't believe the trash someone has to wade through after asking a simple, coherent question.

oldguy is the man. Why are you guys being such jerks?

tis true, weldon

My old roommate was sponsored by adidas and said he had spoken to one of the guys that deals with sponsorship at adidas who knew for a fact that Geb. has run in the world juniors at the age of 24!

Brit runner wrote:

My old roommate was sponsored by adidas and said he had spoken to one of the guys that deals with sponsorship at adidas who knew for a fact that Geb. has run in the world juniors at the age of 24!

You guyz, I bumped into Geb on the street one time in Topeka, Kansas and he told me he was actually 43 when he won the WJC in 1992 against Machuka!

Isn't that the juice, dudes!

Seriously, oldguy, stop being an obstinate idiot and ASK RENATO CANOVA.

mr obvious wrote:

Most don't know that Ethiopia has 425 days in their year.

Whereas that's not true....It is a different year in Ethiopia...so i'm curious abuot this birthcirtificate that says 1973. Ethiopia is something like 9 years behind us. They have a 13 month caladender as well. 12 30 days, and one with 5 days i beleive which shouldn't change anything, but it is not the same year in Ethiopia as it is here so how can his birth cirtificate say 1973?

insider. wrote:

Seriously, oldguy, stop being an obstinate idiot and ASK RENATO CANOVA.

I didn't know that Renato was still posting on this site. (He, also, had to deal with a lot of jerks and trolls here.) Obviously, it would be great to hear from him -- or anyone else who might be an "insider" (not you, apparently, in spite of you pseudonym). I would also be interested in hearing from the Ethiopians who occasionally post here, and who may be a bit closer to the subject.

Mrr82 wrote:

Whereas that's not true....It is a different year in Ethiopia...so i'm curious abuot this birthcirtificate that says 1973. Ethiopia is something like 9 years behind us. They have a 13 month caladender as well. 12 30 days, and one with 5 days i beleive which shouldn't change anything, but it is not the same year in Ethiopia as it is here so how can his birth cirtificate say 1973?

Do you by chance eat a lot of mercury-tainted freshwater fish?

In an earlier post, quoting from the December 1995 issue of T&F News, Oldguy wrote, "He has had to struggle to reach the highest pinnancle of the sport, but at the age of '24 or 25, I think,' the smiling, delightful Gebreselassie, whose 'official' birthdate is listed as April 18, 1973, has established himself as one of distance running's all-time giants."

Within this quote, taken directly from the magazine in front of Oldguy, there is a brief quote from Geb, stating his age at the time to be “24 or 25 I think.” This is set off with single quotation marks, since it’s inside of a larger quote, set off by double quotation marks. It’s somewhat confusing (apparently utterly bewildering to Dunes Runner) because of the lack of “said” or the equivalent within the original passage – a result, perhaps, of careless typing by Oldguy or careless editing of the original article. Perhaps this makes it a bit clearer:

"He has had to struggle to reach the highest pinnancle of the sport, but at the age of '24 or 25, I think,' [said] the smiling, delightful Gebreselassie, whose 'official' birthdate is listed as April 18, 1973, has established himself as one of distance running's all-time giants."

It would be great if Geb set the marathon record and unbeknownst to us, also the master's record.

When I typed that passage, I carefully inserted the single quotation marks (rather than the double quotation marks in the original article) to reflect the quotation within the quotation. I did wonder if someone might misread the passage and miss the single quotation marks and their significance. I probably should not have been too surprised that someone like dunes runner would turn this thread into a tutorial about stylistic conventions in written English.

I don't think that Mackay was careless. I think that he assumed a certain level of sophistication in his readers.

Anyway, my original question was very simple, motivated by curiosity, and not intended to provoke an Internet battle.

I can't believe Wejo put this thread on the front page. This has seriously got to be one of the most ridiculous threads i've ever seen. You guys have spent several dozen posts, over the course of a couple days, trying to dissect the meaning of a quote. Grow up!

Mrr82 wrote:

mr obvious wrote:

Most don't know that Ethiopia has 425 days in their year.

Whereas that's not true....It is a different year in Ethiopia...so i'm curious abuot this birthcirtificate that says 1973. Ethiopia is something like 9 years behind us. They have a 13 month caladender as well. 12 30 days, and one with 5 days i beleive which shouldn't change anything, but it is not the same year in Ethiopia as it is here so how can his birth cirtificate say 1973?

While we were at 0 A.D., Ethiopia was at year 278. Through an amazing coincidence, Geb (the chosen runner) was born at the exact time of the crossing of the two calendars. This explains the difference in how old we think he is and his actual ethiopian age.

adsfjdfd wrote:

You guys have spent several dozen posts, over the course of a couple days, trying to dissect the meaning of a quote.

The meaning of the quote is clear to anyone with passable reading skills, and shouldn't be the focus of the thread. I'm just trying to find out if anyone knows anything more about Geb's actual age, which, like Yifter's actual age, has been the subject of a lot of speculation over the years.

Yifter's birthdate, by the way, is variously listed as January 1, 1938; May 15, 1944; and everywhere in between. Most often, he is reported to have been born in 1938. Although that seems unlikely, Yifter certainly looked like an old guy by the late 1970s. The possibility that a 42-year-old man was the best distance runner in the world is pretty interesting, at least to an old guy like me.

who cares how old anyone is..? the dude runs fast.

The juniors do when they are racing 24 year olds.

The only records that matter are the WRs regardless of someones age

Nicole Blood Doping wrote:

Mrr82 wrote:

Whereas that's not true....It is a different year in Ethiopia...so i'm curious abuot this birthcirtificate that says 1973. Ethiopia is something like 9 years behind us. They have a 13 month caladender as well. 12 30 days, and one with 5 days i beleive which shouldn't change anything, but it is not the same year in Ethiopia as it is here so how can his birth cirtificate say 1973?

Do you by chance eat a lot of mercury-tainted freshwater fish?

Ethiopia uses the Julian calendar which is divided into 12 months of 30 days each and a 13th month of five or six days at the end of the year. The Ethiopian calendar is seven years and eight month behind than that of the Julian calendar.