Respectful acknowledgment of a legend in his own time. I remember being in high school at a running camp and watching video of him training and racing... so inspiring! The sport will miss him greatly.
Respectful acknowledgment of a legend in his own time. I remember being in high school at a running camp and watching video of him training and racing... so inspiring! The sport will miss him greatly.
The one and only GOAT
Yes, distance running has just one star, and now he's gone. Won't forget his win in the 10 000 at Sydney. Epic.
19 seasons at ot very close to the top of distance running. In most of them setting at least 1 WR or winning a global title: greatest in the sport at all of all time, no question about that.
World Class from 1500m to Marathon.
Long live the king!
It is hard to express how much inspiration he has provided to my own running career and I am a mere 17:03 5ker. Before all my 5ks, I watch his 12:39 WR to get myself pumped up. His career has shown me that anything is possible.
I feel like a thread can't do his career justice. A part of us is gone. But we can look forward to his future, may he be even more successful than his past!
One of the greatest of all time.
Am I the only one hoping for a possible comeback for London?
Hate to see him go out like this, but what a career & what an inspiration for the sport!
After all the hate for the last few years, at least he went out with dignity. "No more complaining," he said. Truly a great man, and in my mind the best distance runner of all time. I hope he has a great career and life after running.
truly the great one
He's retired in the way that Brett Favre has retired. He'll be back.
His attitude, longevity, and success inspired me and the running community more than any other single runner could.
Greatest of his time. Think about it.. he broke the 5k record in 1994 and broke the marathon wr in 2008. Nobody will ever do such a thing!
He has a wr from the 2000m to the marathon. Those are great numbers.
I would like to see him run as a 50 year old to see what he can do at that age.
2:09-2:11 will be possible for him.
He completely redefined greatness in this sport. A 3:31 1500m (indoors) and a 2:03 marathon!?! GOAT for sure.
He has always seemed like a truly likeable person as well as being one of the greatest athletes of all time. I hope those saying he isn't really done are correct.
Good luck wherever the future leads you Haile.
One of the NYRR guys said before the race that if Geb won this marathon, the word "arguably" would be forever removed from Gebrselassie's title of being "the greatest of all time".
That word, I dont think, has been attached to Geb's name for the last number of years. He's reached more than enough summits in his career for that.
It'll be weird in the next few years when we go and talk about some upcoming marathon and not be talking about how no-one can beat Geb....
I remember a few years back when he was running the Dubai marathon staying up late just to read the posts updating the race on LetsRun.com. And I wasn't alone. Very few people have that much greatness surrounding them that fans will tune in to text updates.
The guy is a legend. Bekele may have run faster than him, but Geb just has the charisma and absolutely dominated for such a long time.
Long live Geb!
Great runner. Great man.
this is so sad. you can see in his speech how painful it was for him. i have been watching and admiring him as a runner and human being for 18 years, hard to imagine not seeing him race anymore.
the best.