Even if you don't like sports, you should love the Olympics. If you listen, you can hear hundreds of stories over the next two weeks similar to the one below. Lopez Lomong has been chosen by his US team mates to carry the US flag into the Olympic stadium for the opening ceremonies. What I love about his story is that he wasn't born a US citizen. He doesn't take what our country has to offer for granted. He EARNED his citizenship, which he just received a year ago, and he truly appreciates our country while so many of us who know no different, take it for granted and feel all too free to complain about everything we think is wrong, no matter how small - never knowing what it's like to live in a country where things are so bad.
No prayer of survival
When Lomong was 6 years old, the second son in a line of six children born to a farmer in the village of Boya, Sudan was taken from his parents at gunpoint by the Janjaweed government militia while attending Catholic Mass. He was to be trained as a soldier, or starve to death. During three weeks of imprisonment, he ate once a day, a mixture of sorghum and sand.
Run for the border
Three older boys, all around age 14, had discovered a hole in the fence surrounding the prison camp and decided to attempt an escape and to bring Lomong with them. "They told me, 'You're going home', even though they knew we weren't," Lomong said. "They said that so I would join them. They were trying to save my life." For three days Lomong and his friends ran toward safety in Kenya. When they reached the Kenyan border, the three teens were too old to be accepted into a refugee camp, were arrested and returned to Sudanese officials. Only Lomong was granted refuge. "Anything I do in life, I put those guys in front," says Lomong, who cannot recall their names and has no idea if they survived. "They were more than brothers to me."
Schooling sets him free
Lomong spent 10 years living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northern Kenya, where he learned to write by drawing letters in the sand with his finger. But that rudimentary education was enough to help earn him liberation. "They told us that the U.S.A. wants to give 3,500 'Lost Boys' homes," Lomong said. "They said if you want to come to America, write an essay explaining why." For two nights Lomong and many of his friends worked in silence. "I remember it felt like taking a test," he said. "I just sat down, the whole of my mind emptied onto the paper. I wrote some of it in Swahili, I wasn't even aware of it." One month later, his essay was chosen by the Joint Volunteer Agency, and he was on his way to America.
Out of Africa
When Lomong came to the U.S. along with the other "Lost Boys of Sudan," he was adopted by Robert and Barbara Rogers, a couple who lived in Tully, New York. But life in the rural town was unlike any he had ever experienced. Lomong did not know how to flush a toilet and began looking for sacks of corn when told the house was stacked with food. His first night was spent sleeping with the light on because he didn't know there was a switch to turn it off. His first shower at the Rogers' home was cold. He thought nothing of that. Lomong had only bathed in streams or cold water. The second time, the shower was scalding. He stood under the blistering spray for a second or two, then stepped out of the stall. Then back in. Then back out. Until he was clean.
Makings of a champion
One day, Lomong asked Robert Rogers if he could go out on a 30 kilometer run, the same distance he ran along the perimeter of the refugee camp in Kenya daily. Unsure of exactly how long 30 kilometers was, Rogers called his friend Jim Paccia, a high school track coach, and asked him. Paccia immediately signed Lomong up for cross-country. Before the first race, Paccia tried to keep things simple for Lomong, instructing him to go to the front and not to let anyone beat him. Lomong went on to win a New York state championship in the mile.
College days
Lomong spent a year at Norfolk State University in Virginia before transferring to Northern Arizona, where he could train at mile-high altitude. In 2007, he won the 3000m at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships and the 1500m at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. A month later, he became a United States citizen. After competing at the NCAA cross-country championships in the fall, Lomong turned professional and signed a sponsorship deal with Nike.
Olympic inspration
Before coming to live in the U.S., Lomong witnessed one day of Olympic history, a day in Sydney when sprinter Michael Johnson was in action. He paid five shillings, the equivalent of 7 cents that he'd earned for watering a cow in Kenya, to watch on a tiny black-and-white TV powered by a car battery. Lomong met Johnson at the Olympic Trials and told him that he inspired him to become an Olympic runner.
Lomong isn't expected to win any medals. But somehow I don't think that's whats important to him. When he learned he had been chosen to carry the United States flag in the opening ceremony he said, "I feel great, I feel happy, honored. I'm feeling so blessed to get an opportunity to represent the United States of America, to present the United States flag in front of my team."
