It is not often that a major motion picture company sets out with two directors to make a documentary about a 10,000 meter runner. With this selection that is exactly what happened. Disney contracted with the top eight 10k runners during the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games with director Bud Greenspan capturing the Olympic footage knowing that documentary filmmaker Leslie Woodhead would return to their home country to film the story of the winner. Haile Gebrselassie was the winner and the crews packed their bags for Ethiopia. "Endurance: In the Heart of an Olympic Champion is the Courage to Endure" is featured this month because of two outstanding running scenes: the first is a three minute cut at the beginning of the film of Gebrselassie running effortlessly along the countryside. With only the sounds of footstrikes and breathing mixed with the original soundtrack you will be captivated to learn more about this man's life that will soon be told. The second memorable scene is at the finale of the film where we are in the Olympic Stadium in Atlanta in 1996 watching the conclusion of the men's 10,000 meters. The runners kept in a pack with a slow first 5,000 meters. The pace quickened for the second 5,000 which was covered in 13.11,6 (a time good enough to win 18 of the previous 19 Olympic 5,000 meter races). Gebrselassie's last lap took 58,49 seconds and his winning time of 27.07,34 took nearly 14 seconds off Brahim Boutayeb's 1988 Olympic record. About nine minutes of running footage is woven into the story in reaching this final climax. This film is rated G, with a running time of 83 minutes. Production was completed in 1998 and it was released in theaters in the United States on May 14, 1999. This movie then became available on video March 21, 2000 and was distributed by Walt Disney Home Video / Buena Vista Home Entertainment. John Powell composed the musical score that consist of a diverse assortment of Ethiopian traditionals and original songs in Amharic. Although Gebrselassie speaks a bit of English at the very beginning of the film, the rest is spoken in Amharic and it is subtitled. The story is broken into sections every five to ten minutes with captions: Six miles to school; Three hours each day to fetch water; Every year a new brother or sister; Escaping the farm for an afternoon; To the hospital; First marathon: 99th place; Two years of hard training; A thousand others with the same dream; and Chosen to run for Ethiopia. We learn during the course of this film that Gebrselassie's role models were former Ethiopian champions Abibe Bikila (winning two consecutive Olympic marathon golds) and Miruts Yifter (winning the 10,000 meter gold medal during the 1980 Moscow games). Both of these athletes are shown during their Olympic competitions. Rounding out the glory on the awards stand in Atlanta in 1996 was Paul Target from Kenya bringing home to silver and Salah Hissou from Morocco capturing the bronze. At the conclusion, on the screen it is stated: "Runner's World", America's foremost track magazine, recently declared Haile "the greatest distance runner of all time". Based upon the Haile Gebrselassie's 17 world records, not to mention the two Olympic Gold medals and World Championship medals, it would be difficult to disagree.
