The Haile Gebrselassie retirement story continues to make news and it's only getting stranger and stranger. One day after a story appeared in the New York Times on Gebselassie's un-retirement in which it was said that Gebrselassie was under intense political pressure in his native Ethiopia and his phones had been tapped, Gebrselassie and his manager Jos Hermens appeared on national television in Ethiopia and ripped the veracity of the story that appeared in the New York Times.
Let us give you a little background on the story. On Sunday, Gebrselassie un-retired and this was covered in Tuesday's New York Times in a story where reporter Jeré Longman wrote in great depth about some of the political pressures Gebrselassie had been facing in his homeland.
Longman wrote:
Hermens also suggested that Gebrselassie’s emotional decision to retire might have stemmed in part from political pressure he was feeling in Ethiopia. His phone has been tapped by government officials and he has faced some sort of blackmail attempt, Hermens said of his client.
Additionally, Longman talked about how the Prime Minister's wife and her associates were trying to force business partnerships on Gebrselassie.
Well, apparently the story in the New York Times didn't go over well in Ethiopia and on Wednesday, Hermens and Gebrselassie appeared on national televsion in Ethiopia and the two of them ripped the story.
A replay of the Gebrselassie and Hermens appearance on Ethiopian TV can be viewed on youtube. We also have embedded it below, but it's best viewed at the youtube site as the video is primarily in Amharic (although there is enough English that one can hear Hermens denying the accuracy of the story in English) and the youtube site includes an English description of the video as provided by Ethiopian.TV. Their description of the interview quotes Hermens as saying:
"I did not say that (Haile's phone was tapped) and I did not suggest any thing like that at all."
The description also says that "Haile Gebrselassie said it is unfortunate a media like The New York Times published these kinds of fabricated stories."
Update: Thursday 4:55 pm eastern. The New York Times stands behind its story. They said to us, "The New York Times stands by its story. Jeré reported what he was told. We reported the story correctly." More info here. Our story as originally written continues below.
LetsRun.com contacted the New York Times around 10:30 pm EST on Wednesday night to try to get Jeré Longman's response to the Hermens statement. Longman wasn't in the office and the unidentified employee in the Sports Department who answered the phone told us to call back in the morning as he wasn't going to call him this late at home on this matter. On an aside, we imagine if this story was about a US sports star, the reaction would be different. To us, this is a huge story as it involves possible political intimidation of a world record holder.
If Hermens did tell the New York Times Haile's phones were tapped, then it appears he has quickly been forced to deny it on national televsion in Ethiopia. If he didn't say it, then it's pretty bad reporting by arguably the US's most famous newspaper.
Since LetsRun.com can say that we had heard previously from other sources that Haile indeed was facing political pressure in Ethiopia, it certainly wouldn't surprise us if it comes out if Hermens did indeed say it to the Times but has been forced to recant.
Hopefully, the truth will come out on Thursday.
Update: Thursday 4:55 pm eastern. The New York Times stands behind its story. They said to us, "The New York Times stands by its story. Jeré reported what he was told. We reported the story correctly." More info here.
Thursday Update: LetsRun.com had two different people translate the video interview above to try to let you know what it says. The first translation comes from an Ethiopian while the second (which appears in blue) comes from an Ethiopian-American. Given the sensitive political nature of the matter, their names are being with held. Additionally, someone has added English subtitles to the video and re-uploaded it to youtube here and we've re-typed that translation and it appears third in Italics below. We do want to state that the person who wrote us to let us know about the new youtube video with subtitles included a note which included the following accusation/statement:
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Just for the record, the New York Times story used a website called "Ethiopian Review" for its story. This website is anti-government, and is sponsored by the government of Eritrea, and posts false and made up stories. In the Ethiopian community, the website is known as "Eritrean Review." Please watch the other video under the same author to see the many lies the website had posted before.
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