50 free Haile Gebrselassie trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Haile Gebrselassie trivia quiz follows the man nicknamed the Emperor from a farm near Asella, where he ran ten kilometres to school each way, to the fastest marathon ever run at the time. It covers his 1992 World Junior double in Seoul, the shoe he accidentally kicked off Moses Tanui's foot in the 1993 world final, the four straight world 10,000 m titles, the Zürich duels with Daniel Komen, the solo 5000 m world record in Helsinki, and the 0.09-second victory over Paul Tergat in Sydney that made him only the third man to defend the Olympic 10,000 m title. The second half covers the move to the roads: the London debut that Khannouchi turned into a world record, the Berlin Marathons of 2007 and 2008 that lowered the world record to 2:03:59, the Dubai wins, the one-hour record in Ostrava, the half marathons he never lost until 2009, the asthma that kept him out of the Beijing marathon, the retirement he announced and then withdrew in New York, and the final race in Manchester in 2015. It also asks about the Great Ethiopian Run, the film Endurance, the Hyundai factory, the hotels, the coffee estate and the 27 world records. Questions range from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against the Wikipedia article on Haile Gebrselassie.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Ethiopian town was Haile Gebrselassie born on 18 April 1973?
Asella
He was one of ten children on a farm, and his mother died of cancer when he was six.
Q 02What caused Haile Gebrselassie's distinctive posture, with his left arm crooked?
Carrying his books to school on foot
He ran ten kilometres to school every morning and the same distance back each evening.
Q 03How far did the young Haile Gebrselassie run to school each morning?
Ten kilometres
And the same again home each evening, which shaped both his fitness and his crooked-arm running style.
Q 04How many Olympic gold medals did Haile Gebrselassie win, all in the 10,000 metres?
Two
Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000; injury left him fifth in Athens in 2004 when he tried for a third.
Q 05How many world records did Haile Gebrselassie set in his career?
27
He also broke 61 Ethiopian national records at distances from 800 metres to the marathon.
Q 06What is Haile Gebrselassie's best-known nickname?
The Emperor
Others called him the 'Emperor of the Distance Running'; New African listed him among the 100 most influential Africans in 2011.
Q 07In which city did Haile Gebrselassie win the 5000 m and 10,000 m at the 1992 World Junior Championships?
Seoul
He also took silver in the junior race at that year's World Cross Country Championships in Boston.
Q 08How many consecutive World Championship 10,000 m titles did Haile Gebrselassie win between 1993 and 1999?
Four
He added silver in 2003 behind Kenenisa Bekele and bronze in 2001.
Q 09Whose shoe did Gebrselassie step off at the bell in the 1993 World Championship 10,000 m?
Moses Tanui's
The angry Kenyan surged to a 10-metre lead with one shoe, only to be run down on the final straight.
Q 10Whose 5000 m world record did Haile Gebrselassie break with his first world record, 12:56.96 in 1994?
Saïd Aouita's
He took almost two seconds off the mark; a year later in Zürich he ran 12:44.39, taking 10.91 seconds off Kiptanui's newer record.
Q 11Which Kenyan beat Haile Gebrselassie at the 1996 Zürich Weltklasse and took his 5000 m record in 1997?
Daniel Komen
Haile was suffering blisters from the hard Atlanta track; he beat Komen in Zürich in 1997 with a 26.8-second last 200 m, then lost the record nine days later.
Q 12In which Dutch town did Haile Gebrselassie set 10,000 m world records in 1995 and 1998?
Hengelo
His 26:22.75 in June 1998 was run with perfectly even 13:11/13:11 splits and took Paul Tergat's record; he later broke four world records in that stadium.
Q 13How fast was Haile's final lap in his solo 5000 m world record of 12:39.36 in Helsinki in 1998?
56.77 seconds
Q 21Which 2006 race did Haile call 'the worst race of my career' after finishing ninth in 2:09:05?
The London Marathon
Five months later he won Berlin in 2:05:56, becoming only the fifth man ever under 2:06.
Q 22What forced Haile to drop out of the 2007 race in the British capital at 18 miles?
An allergic reaction to pollen
He complained of a stitch and being unable to breathe; Martin Lel went on to win.
Q 23How far did Haile run in his 2007 one-hour world record in Ostrava?
21,285 m
He beat Arturo Barrios's 1991 mark of 21,101 m and set a 20,000 m best of 56:25.98 on the way, his 23rd and 24th world records.
His pacemakers had faded six laps out and even the British commentators had counted him out; he needed a sub-four-minute final 1,600 m and ran 3:59.36.
Q 14In which 1999 film did Haile Gebrselassie play himself, chronicling his run to Olympic gold in Atlanta?
Endurance
That year he also won the 1500/3000 m double at the World Indoor Championships and went unbeaten at every distance.
Q 15By what margin did Haile beat Paul Tergat in the 2000 Sydney Olympic 10,000 m final?
0.09 seconds
That was closer than the men's 100 m final; Haile's last 200 m of 25.4 seconds beat Tergat's 26.3.
Q 16Haile's Sydney win made him the third man to defend an Olympic 10,000 m title. Who were the first two?
Emil Zátopek and Lasse Virén
Bekele and Farah later joined the club; Haile's attempt at a third title in Athens ended in fifth place after Achilles trouble.
Q 17Which annual mass-participation race in Addis Ababa did Haile conceive with Peter Middlebrook in 2001?
The Great Ethiopian Run
Brendan Foster, Richard Nerurkar and British ambassador Myles Wickstead later supported it.
Q 18Which countryman beat Haile to 10,000 m gold at the 2003 World Championships in Paris?
Kenenisa Bekele
That closing 5000 m was the fastest ever in a global championship at the time; Bekele later took both of Haile's major track records.
Q 19Why did Haile finish only fifth in the 10,000 m at the 2004 Athens Olympics?
An inflamed Achilles cost him three weeks of training
He said he would not have raced but for pressure from his country; Bekele won gold.
Q 20Where did Haile Gebrselassie make his marathon debut in 2002, finishing third?
London
He went out at world-record pace but was passed by Khalid Khannouchi, who set a new record, and Paul Tergat.
Q 24What time did Haile run to set his first marathon world record in Berlin on 30 September 2007?
2:04:26
It shaved 29 seconds off Paul Tergat's 2003 record on the same course and came during Ethiopia's Millennium celebrations.
Q 25What was Haile's world-record time at the 2008 Berlin Marathon?
2:03:59
He averaged 2:56.5 per kilometre and cut 27 seconds from his own record; it stood for three years until Patrick Makau broke it.
Q 26How many consecutive Berlin Marathons did Haile Gebrselassie win?
Four
2006 through 2009, plus three straight Dubai Marathon wins from 2008 to 2010.
Q 27Why did Haile withdraw from the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
He feared the air pollution would harm his asthma
He later admitted regretting it because the air was cleaner than expected; he ran the 10,000 m instead and finished sixth.
Q 28Haile's 26:51.20 for 10,000 m in May 2008 remains the world record for which age group?
Masters 35-39
He finished a close second to Sileshi Sihine; his nine sub-27-minute 10,000 m runs are matched only by Kenenisa Bekele.
Q 29Who inflicted Haile's first half marathon defeat, in The Hague in March 2009, ending a 9-0 record?
Sammy Kitwara
Kitwara ran 59:47 to Haile's 59:50; Haile had won the World Half Marathon title in 2001 and set a 58:55 world record in Arizona in 2006.
Q 30Where did Haile set his first world record on US soil, a 58:55 half marathon in January 2006?
Rock 'n' Roll Arizona
He beat Samuel Wanjiru's record by 21 seconds and passed 20 km faster than Paul Tergat's 1998 best.