byLarry Eder
Haile Gebrselassie, May 2012, Hengelo, his last 10,000m on track, photo by PhotoRun.net
Haile speaks
PARIS (FRA): Legendary Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie (42) was visiting Paris during the weekend as prominent starter of the Half Marathon. About the recent cases in his country he said for L´Équipe: “I was surprised by the number, I did not expect it will be that many. And I was surprised that Ethiopian athletes are involved in doping scandals. I was sorry. I do not understand why. Now the situation is very serious. Believe it or not, now, in my country, everybody speaks only about that.” And he added: “I agree that we should clean our sport, it is very important, no doubt about it. No question of criticizing the IAAF or WADA, they must work well. But what I do not like is that we suspend a country as a whole. It’s the easy way. Remember that in Russia there are athletes, who work hard, who suffer, who sweat every day without doping. Take the example of terrorism: the terrorists can not represent the millions of people of their country. We can not ban everyone together. For cheaters, I think we can not be content with a suspension of two or four years, there needs to be something else, a very serious punishment.”
