Man this story made me really appreciate what I have and how spoiled some people in the U.S. are. Just think she was able to still compete in the olympics without even being able to eat some days. Not even being able to train because of threats and what not. I just think this is a great story.
Ah, but you're wrong CurtyCurt. I did hear about this story. Because it's on Yahoo! homepage. Wuah hahahaha! (BTW, no YouTube video to accompany it? I almost didn't believe this was one of your posts for a second.)
It was Aug. 19, and the tiny girl had crossed over seven lanes to find her starting block in her 200-meter heat. She walked past Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown the eventual gold medalist in the event. Samia had read about Campbell-Brown in track and field magazines and once watched her in wonderment on television. As a cameraman panned down the starting blocks, it settled on lane No. 2, on a 17-year old girl with the frame of a Kenyan distance runner. Samia's biography in the Olympic media system contained almost no information, other than her 5-foot-4, 119-pound frame. There was no mention of her personal best times and nothing on previous track meets. Somalia, it was later explained, has a hard time organizing the records of its athletes.
She looked so odd and out of place among her competitors, with her white headband and a baggy, untucked T-shirt. The legs on her wiry frame were thin and spindly, and her arms poked out of her sleeves like the twigs of a sapling. She tugged at the bottom of her shirt and shot an occasional nervous glance at the other runners in her heat. Each had muscles bulging from beneath their skin-tight track suits. Many outweighed Samia by nearly 40 pounds.
After introductions, she knelt into her starting block.
That's beautiful, man.
"Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year. And then discover once a year is way too often." - Johnny Carson
Ah, but you're wrong CurtyCurt. I did hear about this story. Because it's on Yahoo! homepage. Wuah hahahaha! (BTW, no YouTube video to accompany it? I almost didn't believe this was one of your posts for a second.)
your right I should have had video on this.......I never even searched for it. Maybe i'm slipping in my old age.
