The 38-year-old Ethiopian dropped out of his second successive marathon in Berlin on Sunday and saw his record time broken by Kenyan Patrick Makau.

But he told BBC Sport: "I don't want to miss the Olympics.

"It is London and to win here is something very special. I want to go down in history."

As well as a brace of Olympic 10,000m gold medals, coming in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney four years later, Gebrselassie has won four World Championship 10,000m golds and four World Indoor Championship golds (three at 3,000m, one at 1500m) and has nine marathon victories to his name during a glittering 20-year career.

But he has been suffering from exercise-induced asthma which contributed to him dropping out the race in Berlin after 35km.

This followed his failure to finish the New York Marathon last year because of an inflamed knee, which resulted in him announcing his retirement - a decision he reversed just a few days later.

"Sometimes when I look back I wonder if that was me or...