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DEL.ICIO.USSometimes sports answers tough politics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Beijing — As it turns out, sports and politics can mix wonderfully.
A government rescues abducted children from a war-torn country. A 6-year-old boy crawls through a fence hole to escape the militia. The U.S. throws him a rescue line. He takes his first real shower and has “the best meal I’ve ever had” at a fast-food restaurant. High school, college, citizenship.
The story gets better.
Sports and politics more than mixed this time. Lopez Lomong, who once ran for his life, will run for a medal for the U.S. in the 1,500 meters. Could even a gold match what he felt Friday night as the flag-bearer for the U.S. team in Opening Ceremonies?
Sports and politics got it right. U.S. athletes have been answering questions for months about whether they would make political statements at these Olympics. Would they speak out about Tibet or Darfur? Will they lambaste China for its human rights record? Would they make use of their 15 minutes of fame?
“I’ve thought about that,” said Jessica Mendoza, a softball player. “We all have a goal of just getting that 15 minutes. What we do with it, I’m not sure.”
No reason to say a word now.
It doesn’t really matter whether political motives or just a really cool story prompted U.S. athletes to select Lomong to lead them into Beijing’s National Stadium. Either way, perfect choice.
In 2000, he was 15 and raking dirt in a refugee camp in Kenya when friends suggested they watch the Olympics on television. The closest TV was five miles away. They walked.
“It was five [Kenyan] shillings to get in,” Lomong said.
He paid the equivalent of seven cents to watch the Sydney Olympics in black and white. When he walked into the room, Michael Johnson was running the 400. “I said I want to be as fast as that guy. I want to wear that uniform.”
There were other worthy choices as flag-bearer. But nobody else had been chased through an African jungle.
As a 6-year-old, Lomong didn’t know about the civil war in the Sudan, the militia that destroyed villages, killed parents and abducted young boys with the intent of forcing them into being soldiers. But one day, in the village of Kimotong, militiamen broke into church as Lomong sat with his parents. They told everybody to lie down and directed the children outside. When Lomong’s father tried to fight, he was knocked to the ground.
“They dragged us all the way to a big truck, which was covered with canvas,” Lomong said. “I was crying.”
There were nearly 100 boys on that truck. They were driven far away, to a small, windowless building and imprisoned for three weeks. Back in Kimotong, Lomong’s parents searched for him for days. Eventually, they gave up hope, presumed him dead and held a funeral.
Lomong endured but saw death all around him. The boys were given water twice a day. The only “food” was a mixture of grasses and sand. Several died. “Kids would go to sleep and not get up the next day,” he said.
Instead, he escaped. A friend noticed a hole in a fence. “He came over to me and said, ‘At midnight, we’re going to see your parents,’” Lomong said. And as the guards spoke, four boys crawled in the dirt and through the hole.
They ran for three days. (“That’s when I started to race.”)
The four slept facing in one direction so they wouldn’t awake and run in a circle. When they reached the Kenyan border, they were arrested by officials and put in a refugee camp. It was Lomong’s home for 10 years, and he didn’t mind. He had presumed his parents were dead.
In 2001, the U.S. started a program to find homes for “The Lost Boys of the Sudan.” Lomong was in that first group of 3,600. His foster parents in upstate New York, Roger and Barbara Tully, picked him up at the airport. His first American meal was a chicken sandwich from McDonald’s, which he loved but couldn’t finish. The Tullys told him to discard the rest. But he took it home.
“In camp we had chicken twice: Christmas and Easter,” he said. One chicken for 10 boys. They made a soup with water and salt. “If there was a piece of chicken in [your bowl], Merry Christmas to you,” he said.
Lomong was 16 when he came to the U.S. He went to high school, then Northern Arizona University, and ran track. On July 6, 2007, he became a U.S. citizen. One year later to the day, he made the Olympic team.
Story gets better.
Last August, he was reunited with his parents. Three months later, he gave them a TV set. Color.
“I told them to watch me in the Olympics,” he said. “I didn’t even know if I would make it, but I did.”
He was asked Friday about Darfur and China’s record on human rights. He chose to stay clear of controversial comments, other than to say he was “disappointed” that fellow Team Darfur member Joey Cheek had his visa revoked by the Chinese government.
“He’s supposed to be here,” Lomong said. “He’s an Olympian. He’s supposed to tell people about the situation.”
It doesn’t matter now. No statement could’ve been louder than Lomong leading the U.S. team into the stadium. There’s your 15 minutes.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Beijing Olympics
Comments
By The_Future
August 9, 2008 2:49 AM | Link to this
Great read…
By ahmed
August 9, 2008 3:07 AM | Link to this
I have a question for you, did you notice that the one who raise the flag of our beloved Sudan is from Darfur! To the large population of Sudan what USA is doing is just poltics for its own agenda and they way you wrote this article is just part of that propoganda. I admit there is tragedy in Darfur due to voilence with shared responsibilty. Of course China will work for its interest as US is doing.My sincere advice and request is use your talent and efforts to support peace not more killing to save lives in Darfur by encouraging various Darfurian factions to sit and talk with the government.
By JSS
August 9, 2008 7:08 AM | Link to this
Ahmed
The operative words in your fine thesis were: “use your talent and efforts to support peace not more killing.” First, Jeff Schultz would have to such attributes. Unfortunately that is not the case. You clearly see the immense the difference between Southern Sudan and surrounding regions which have been drawn into this morass. This is not Bosnia, it is going to take a true international effort to forge a solution. The time for military intervention passed in 1997. But of course some people were too bust trying to impeach Clinton for adultery instead seeing the clouds of death, and other atrocities that were taking place in Burandi, Rwanda, the Balkans, Mynanmar, and Zimbabwe.
Jeff Schultz is myopic when he gets on something, he’ll nag it, he’ll gag it, and he’ll certainly misrepresent it…
By Ted Striker
August 9, 2008 11:55 AM | Link to this
Great article on the freedom and opportunity available in the US.
P.S. Also available in the U.S. — the ability to surf the internet and become a blogging troll, posting insults and jibes aimed at your favorite AJC targets
By Brendan
August 10, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this
And sometimes … politics answers through sports. I look forward to that!
Hi Jeff. Hope you are enjoying China and the Olympic experience.