The Olympics begin on Friday, which means for the next two weeks our televisions, computer screens and twitter accounts will be filled with updates on the action. Whether it be on the field, the politics surrounding the games or British food we are sure to hear it all.
NBC will be showing over 3,600 hours of coverage on their vast universe of networks. Much of the time will be devoted to stories of athletes overcoming adversity of all sorts, including heart-warming pieces and inspirational tales. There will be times we will be over-saturated and will change the channel because we are unable to take any more “puff pieces” as some have come to call them. But there is one story for which you should not change the channel.
Guor Marial will be competing in the men’s marathon during this years Olympics. Oddly enough, he won’t be competing for a country. Marial is from the country of South Sudan. South Sudan is one year and two weeks old as of today. South Sudan has not yet developed a National Olympic Committee (NOC), meaning that Marial cannot compete for the country he calls home. He was offered a spot on Sudan’s marathon team, but promptly rejected it.
That takes us to the next part of this story.
We pick up the story in 1956, twenty-eight years before Marial was born. Sudan gained its independence from Egypt at the beginning of that year, but the country was already being torn apart. The First Sudanese Civil War was fought from 1955-1972, but like many poor nations that are filled with many different ethnic and religious groups, war was bound to break out again. In 1983, the Second Sudanese Civil War began. This war claimed the lives of 1-2 million people and endanger millions more.
One of those affected by this war was Guor Marial. Marial was born in what is now South Sudan in 1984, the second year of the conflict. The Associated Press recently ran story about him and had this to say about the next part of his life:
“Two decades ago, Marial escaped from the labor camp in Sudan when he was 8, running away under darkness with another child about a week after he was kidnapped by gunmen and forced to work. The pair hid in a cave until dawn, he said, and then followed the path of the sun. Marial lived in Egypt before eventually reaching the United States.”
The AP story continues on to talk about Marial’s high school and college career in the United States, where he honed his skills to became an All-American. In 2011, Marial ran the Twin Cities Marathon in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 32 seconds, which qualified him for the Olympic games.
Since South Sudan does not have a NOC, Marial needed something extra to get into the games. That came from United States Senator Jeanne Shaheen from New Hampshire. She sent a letter to the International Olympic Commitee petitioning for Marial to be able to run under the Olympic flag.
The Olympics will come to a close on Sunday, August 12. On that day the men’s marathon will be ran past some of the most historic and recognized buildings and places in the city of London before finishing with the runners entering the Olympic Stadium to get to the finish line. Among the many runners will be Guor Marial, a South Sudanese citizen but competing as a citizen of the world. And as citizens of the world ourselves, we should embrace Guor Marial as one of our own, because we could not have someone to be more proud of to represent us.
For more on this story, including quotes and more history, you can click on the Associated Press story I mentioned here.
The Good in Sports wishes Marial the best of luck in the 2012 Olympic games.
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