After reading about the athlete who refused his bronze medal and declared this Olympics a failure because he’d wanted gold, and about other athletes who have been stripped of their medals, it’s refreshing to find an athlete who seems to have the true Olympic spirit and an appreciation of what’s important. Runner Lopez Lomong appears to have that spirit–toward the Olympic Games as well as toward his adopted family and country.
“I came here for the pride and love of my country,” said Lomong. “I came here to try my best to represent the country and to be a great ambassador for my country. I want to thank the people of Syracuse and Tully for the great support they’ve given me. That’s as good as gold.”
Lopez Lomong came to America as one of the so-called “Lost Boys” of Sudan. Lomong was taken from his parents at gunpoint at age six, while attending Mass in his home village. The government militia called the “Janjaweed” took him and other children to a prison camp where they would either learn to be soldiers—or starve. They ate one meal a day of sorghum mixed with sand.
Three teenagers in the camp found a weak spot in the fence and decided to take the young boy with them on a daring escape. The older boys carried the boy on their backs when he could not keep up on their grueling three-day trek to Kenya. Ironically, Lomong, as a child, was accepted into a Kenyan refugee camp while the older boys, whose age apparently disqualified them from refugee status, were sent back into Sudan. Lomong doesn’t know what happened to them.
“Anything I do in my life, I put those guys first,” Lomong says. “They were more than brothers to me.”
Lomong spent nearly ten years in a refugee camp in Kenya. He remembers other boys at the refugee camp talked him into walking five miles and paying five shillings to watch a portion of the 2000 Sydney Olympics on a small and fuzzy black-and-white television. Lomong began to dream of someday running for the United States.
Lomong was able to obtain very rudimentary schooling in the camp, writing words in the dirt. Somehow, he managed to learn enough to write an essay which won him admission to the U.S. in a program to rehabilitate a certain number of the “Lost Boys”.
When Lomong joined the Rogers family, light switches and hot showers were a mystery to him. Seeking solace in the familiar, he asked his foster father if he could go for a 30 kilometer run—the distance he had run around the perimeter of the refugee camp in Kenya.
Unsure how long a distance 30 kilometers was, Robert Rogers called a friend who coached high school track before he agreed to Lopez’ request. Rogers heard a pause on the other end of the line.
“I’ll be right over there,” the coach replied.
Lomong ran track at Tully High School. On his second day of school, his English teacher asked the students to summarize a book they’d recently read. Lomong told her that he had never owned a book, and proceeded to eloquently narrate his own true story.
Lomong entered Northern Arizona University with a major in hotel and restaurant management.
Lomong became a U.S. citizen in July of 2007. Lomong not only fulfilled his dream of running for the United States in the Olympics, but was chosen to carry the U.S. flag in the opening ceremonies.
Lomong is also a member of Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes dedicated to raising awareness of and ending the genocide in Sudan.
“When we were in Africa, we didn’t know what was there for us as kids–we just ran. God was planning all of this stuff for me, and I didn’t know. Now I’m using running to get the word out about how horrible things were back in Sudan during the war. Sometimes these things are not on CNN, so if I put out the word, I hope people can get the information. Right now, similar terrible things are going on in Darfur; people are running out of Darfur, and I put myself in their shoes.”
Lomong has inspired his fellow U.S. Olympic teammates. Philip Dunn, a U.S. Olympic racewalker, says, “Lopez Lomong represents so many wonderful aspects of the Olympic movement: youth, talent, and an ability to overcome amazing obstacles in life with poise and determination. The movement to bring awareness to Sudanese suffering is well served by someone who has lived through it. As a fellow U.S. Olympic team member, I know I will be more inspired by his life experiences.”
Lomong did not make it out of the semifinals in his event, the 1500 meters. But he did not express disappointment. After losing his heat in the semifinals for the 1500 meter race, he dined out with his family and his high school coach that evening. He said that his immediate plans are to go back to the Syracuse area to thank residents there for raising money for his adoptive parents and his first coach to join him in Beijing.
Although we hear the “medal count” updated nightly on TV, I know that Lomong’s testimony makes me feel more proud of my country than any number of medals could. Lomong’s response after losing his chance for a medal reminds us of what is really important.
“”Wow, what a great experience for me,” Lomong said after losing his semifinals heat. “To come here with my great colors [America’s red, white and blue] on my chest and having a lot of people waving the flag, it’s wonderful.”
Sources for this article included the websites NBC Olympics.com and LopezLomong.Org; Team Darfur president Joey Cheek, athlete bios at TeamUSA.org; and Maureen Sieh’s article in the Post-Standard.
Please see this related blog:
Everyone’s a Winner at the Olympics