ABSTRACT
The Ethiopian long-distance runner, Haile Gebrselassie, is recognized across the world as one of the greatest distance runners of all time. Over the course of his decade-long international track career (he has now moved onto road running), he won two Olympic gold medals at 10,000 metres, four world championships at 10,000 metres and set 17 world records over five different distances. In January 2003 I was approached by Gebrselassie’s Dutch manager, Jos Hermens, and asked to write Gebrselassie’s official biography (Denison 2004). This invitation came about because I was leading (and I still do) a double life as an academic and a sports journalist. More specifically, as a former middledistance runner I was writing regular feature stories for a number of popular running magazines in the USA and England such as Runner’s World and Athletics Weekly. And my networks within international track and field put me in regular contact with a wide range of athletes, managers, promoters and members of the media.
