Haile Gebrselassie Trivia
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49 free Haile Gebrselassie trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Sep 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 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Ethiopian town was Haile Gebrselassie born on 18 April 1973?
Asella
Asella was home to the family farm, which had no running water or electricity; his father expected him to work the land rather than race.
Q 02What caused Haile Gebrselassie's distinctive posture, with his left arm crooked?
Carrying his books to school on foot
Carrying his books to school on foot meant running ten kilometres each way with them tucked under one arm, and the arm stayed crooked when he raced on the track.
Q 03Which prize for his 1993 world title won Haile's father over?
A Mercedes-Benz
A Mercedes-Benz came with the 10,000 m gold in Stuttgart. His father had not wanted him to run, and he backed it from then on.
Q 04In which city did Haile win his first Olympic 10,000 m gold medal, in 1996?
Atlanta
Atlanta brought the first of his two Olympic golds. The hard track left his feet so blistered and sore that he withdrew from the 5000 m.
Q 05In which city did Haile win the marathon four years running?
Berlin
Berlin gave him four straight wins from 2006 to 2009. In 2008 he skipped the Olympic marathon, then ran 2:03:59 there five weeks later, the first time under 2:04.
Q 06What is Haile Gebrselassie's best-known nickname?
The Emperor
The Emperor ran an empire off the track too: he put his race winnings into property and businesses in Addis Ababa.
Q 07Which city, the Olympic host four years earlier, staged the 1992 World Junior Championships where Haile won two golds?
Seoul
Seoul brought the 19-year-old both the 5000 m and 10,000 m junior titles; a year later he almost repeated the double against seniors, with 5000 m silver and 10,000 m gold.
Q 08Which Kenyan finished second to Haile in both of his Olympic 10,000 m victories?
Paul Tergat
Paul Tergat was, in Haile's own words, "my big opponent". The Kenyan later set a marathon world record, the mark Haile himself broke four years on.
Q 09Whose shoe did Gebrselassie step off at the bell in the 1993 World Championship 10,000 m?
Moses Tanui's
Moses Tanui's shoe came off when Haile clipped his heel at the bell; the defending champion sprinted ten metres clear on one shoe and was caught in the final straight.
Q 10Whose 5000 m world record, unbeaten since 1987, fell to Haile's first world record in 1994?
Saïd Aouita's
Saïd Aouita's 12:58.39 had stood for almost seven years when the 21-year-old ran 12:56.96. Moses Kiptanui took the record from him a year later, and Haile won it back within ten weeks.
Q 11Which Kenyan took Haile's 5000 m world record in August 1997, only nine days after Haile had set it?
Daniel Komen
Daniel Komen ran 12:39.74 in Brussels on 22 August 1997, nine days after Haile's 12:41.86; Haile won the record back the following June with 12:39.36.
Q 12In which Dutch town did Haile Gebrselassie set 10,000 m world records in 1995 and 1998?
Hengelo
Hengelo saw four of his world records, starting with his first, over 5000 m in 1994; his last Olympic bid ended there too, with seventh place in a 2012 selection race.
Q 13Which second career did Haile say for years that he hoped to enter once his running days were over?
Politics
Q 21Which 2006 race, where he finished only ninth, did Haile call 'the worst race of my career'?
The London Marathon
The London Marathon of April 2006 left him ninth; five months later he won his next marathon in a national record 2:05:56, and he won again in Fukuoka that December.
Q 22What forced Haile to drop out of the 2007 race in the British capital at 18 miles?
An allergic reaction to pollen
An allergic reaction to pollen was the explanation given afterwards; at the time he stopped at 18 miles complaining of a stitch and saying he could not breathe.
Q 23Which track world record did Haile go to Ostrava to break in 2007?
The one-hour run
Politics was the ambition he voiced before the 2008 Olympics. 'I love my country and want to give something back,' he said of the future.
Q 14In which Disney-released docudrama did Haile play himself, retracing his road to a first Olympic gold?
Endurance
Endurance casts his own father, brother and wife as themselves, so the father who wanted him to stay on the farm replays that conversation with him on screen.
Q 15By what margin did Haile win the 10,000 m final at the 2000 Sydney Olympics?
0.09 seconds
0.09 seconds was tighter than the 0.12 that decided the men's 100 m final at the same Games; after 25 laps he edged ahead only in the last few strides.
Q 16Which two men defended the Olympic 10,000 m title before Haile did in 2000?
Emil Zátopek and Lasse Virén
Emil Zátopek and Lasse Virén retained the title in 1952 and 1976. Virén had won his first in 1972 after falling in mid-race, and still broke the world record.
Q 17Which annual mass-participation race in Addis Ababa did Haile help to found after the Sydney Olympics?
The Great Ethiopian Run
The Great Ethiopian Run, a 10 km road race, drew 10,000 entrants to its first edition in 2001, and Haile won it himself. By its eighth staging some 32,000 had signed up.
Q 18Which countryman beat Haile to 10,000 m gold at the 2003 World Championships in Paris?
Kenenisa Bekele
Kenenisa Bekele won a race whose second half took 12:57.24, faster than any 5000 m final then run at a global championship; Haile, the four-time champion, took silver.
Q 19Why was Haile only fifth in the 2004 Olympic 10,000 m?
An inflamed Achilles tendon
An inflamed Achilles tendon had kept him from proper training for three weeks. Neither he nor his manager thought him fit to race, but the pressure on him to run was intense.
Q 20Which Moroccan-born American broke his own world record to win Haile's marathon debut in 2002?
Khalid Khannouchi
Khalid Khannouchi ran 2:05:38, four seconds inside his own 1999 mark; Haile set a fierce early pace, faded in the last two miles and was third in 2:06:35, a record for a debut.
The one-hour run had beaten him once: in 2002 leg trouble stopped his first attempt after about 40 minutes. At Ostrava he covered 21,285 m, more than 13 miles, in the hour.
Q 24In which European capital did Haile take his first marathon victory in 2005, starting from the 1928 Olympic stadium?
Amsterdam
Amsterdam gave him a 2:06:20 win and a course record, yet he said he was not happy: he was still ahead of world-record pace at 35 km and lost it over the closing stretch.
Q 25In which Swiss city did Haile twice break the 5000 m world record?
Zürich
Zürich's Weltklasse meeting saw him break the 5000 m record in 1995 and again in 1997; the second of those marks lasted only nine days.
Q 26In which event did Haile win a world road title?
Half marathon
The half marathon made him a world champion in only his second race at the distance: in Bristol he sprinted away from his teammate Tesfaye Jifar to win by a single second.
Q 27Why did Haile withdraw from the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
Fear of smog harming his asthma
Fear of smog harming his asthma over 42 km decided it: he called the city's air 'a threat to my health', ran the 10,000 m at those Games instead and finished sixth.
Q 28In which Andalusian city did Haile win his fourth straight world 10,000 m title in 1999?
Seville
Seville was his first 10,000 m of the season. In fierce heat he sat through a slow race and won with a last-lap sprint that nobody could match.
Q 29In which English city did Haile set indoor world records in 1998 and 1999 and win a 2003 world indoor title?
Birmingham
Birmingham's indoor arena saw his 5000 m run of 12:50.38 in 1999 win back the world indoor record that a Kenyan rival had taken from him a year earlier.
Q 30In which US state is Tempe, where Haile ran a world record 58:55 for 13.1 miles in 2006?
Arizona
Arizona's Rock 'n' Roll race began slowly behind his pacemakers. Before 8 km he left them, ran the rest alone and took 21 seconds off the mark.