My hero: Gebrsalassie on Nelson Mandela

World marathon record holder Haile Gebrselassie spoke to spikesmag.com to talk about his total respect for former South African president Nelson Mandela.

After nearly ten minutes of waxing lyrical about Mandela, Gebrselassie, who many regard as the world’s greatest distance runner, throws his hands up in the air in mock disgust.

An adidas pr chief has called an end to our interview session and Haile says jokingly, or maybe only half-jokingly: “Why you try to stop me now? We are talking about an important issue.”

Joking apart Gebrselassie is undoubtedly passionate about Mandela. Read more below about what one great man says about another.

“Nelson Mandela, he is the kind of person to teach us a lot. He became the president of South Africa after 27 years in prison... imagine that kind of endurance.

"I learn a lot from Mandela. He teaches us all a kind of forgiveness and always when I think about Mandela, I think about what kind of person he is. He once signed his book – Long Walk to Freedom – for me and I sent him my shirt. It is one of my best gifts. I admire it a lot.

"I first became aware of him when he came out of prison and there was a lot of talk about him. Interestingly, before he was imprisoned he did his military training in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

"I have met him once at the 1996 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Cape Town.

"We met him as part of the Ethiopian team. I was not that very well known at the time, so I only shook his hand.

"Still, you can learn a lot from this guy. Now one thing I wish for is to see Mandela at the 2010 South Africa World Cup. I would love to see him open the tournament for that first game.

"If I ever met him [again] I would like to ask him ‘what kind of person you are?’ You are the one who teach us everything. I would like to ask him ‘what kind of religion you have? Are you a true Muslim or Christian?' He is a true religious person and he is one that can teach us about forgiveness.

"I would also like to ask him ‘what kind of strengths he has?’ He is a very strong man. We are weak compared to the kind of things he did. He is an icon. After 100 years we will know this story about a guy who was in prison for more than 27 years and he became president of one of the big African countries. This is something very special.”