Run, Forrest!
I don’t know if anyone caught this on the news, but Ethiopian athletes captured the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places in the women’s 5,000-metre Olympic trials, and 1st and 3rd in the men’s 5,000. I happened to be on the road when the cavalcade came through town on the way to a huge celebration at the stadium; the athletes were all standing up through the sunroofs on large SUVs, in bright yellow and green track suits, holding flowers and waving to the ecstatically honking and cheering crowd, who were not put off for a moment for being held up in traffic for about a half hour. M. told me that all the great Ethiopian runners are from the same region in the mountains; that because their homeland is so isolated, the schools are very far apart and the children have to travel between 5 and 12 kilometers to school every day (two to four times a day, if they go home for lunch) and that in order to make the journey faster, they all run to school, books and all. Ethiopia doesn’t have an Olympic training compound or a developed training program as such; just imagine what they could accomplish if they did!
posted by Margot @ 7:15 AM
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