As you watched the XXIX Olympiad’s Opening Ceremonies last night, if you didn’t know beforehand who was going to be the United States flag bearer in the “Walk of Nations”, you do now.
It wasn’t LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. It wasn’t Michael Phelps or Jenny Finch. It wasn’t Tyson Gay or Alison Felix, nor was it Misty May-Treanor or Kerri Walsh.
It was Lopepe Lopez Lomong, a “Lost Boy of Sudan.”
The third place finisher at the Olympic Trials in the 1500 meters, a race where it seemed that the pressure may have gotten to him to fulfill an unbelievable story at the time already unbelievable (and it is and will be forever unbelievable whether he didn’t qualify for this Olympics, or the one in London four years from now, or any other one). It seemed he had made his move a little too early on the last lap, and he was not as strong as Bernard Legat, another African distance runner running for the United States now, in that race. But he still finished third.
And with that, on 8-8-08, Lomong’s full story was at the world’s ears. Here, a 23 year old that was taken away from his family while he was six years old during a Catholic mass by government soldiers, blindfolded in a truck, then escaping to a Kenyan refugee camp for 10 years, becoming part of the Lost Boys of their country(ies)’s war , adopted by the upstate New York couple of Rob and Barb Rogers, was the paradigm of the 600 plus athletes representing America.
“This is the greatest day of my life,” said Lomong.
His life’s anecdote is more than a great Hollywood movie. It is an utter inspiration that just isn’t common. Everyone should be happy about him, and they should be happy about him being given this wonderful honor.
If only things were that easy. And sadly, they are not.
Because while we felicitate at Lomong’s amazing journey from horror revealed to hope fulfilled, it is hard not to look at the other side of the spectrum. That alarming other side that may have played just as much, and if not more, of a factor in Lomong’s being the flag bearer for America than his own, individual tale.
It has been reported that the captains of the U.S. sport teams voted for Lomong to be the flag waver. I definitely believe that was the case.
But seriously, I find it hard to believe that they knew Lomong before they ever touched ground in Beijing, let alone them knowing Lomong’s story by themselves compared to getting it from a second hand source. Sadly, I think the case of them being influenced by higher ups to choose this incredible person (not forced, but influenced like lobbyists on Capital Hill do) because he was originally from the Sudan is the main reason why.
Lomong, though Sudanese, is from a small town in South Sudan. The ugliness in Darfur is in West Sudan. You look at the geography.
Lomong fled Sudan at age 6. The genocide in Darfur has been reported to start in 2003.
Lomong has never voiced out vociferously in public one bit about what has happened in Sudan, and definitely not on television. Not like Bryant and James have done in the last year before they somehow have not wanted to talk about it anymore.
It is alarmingly painful to say that Lopez Lomong’s story looks like it wasn’t the only factor in him being voted to hold the American flag at the Olympic stadium. He was part of the bigger picture.
Since no athlete is going to come close to talking about Tibet, the only ways the American Olympians and the USOC will talk about anything political that could make them uncomfortable are through subliminal message like gas masks for pollution and now, sadly this story. There is no need to even get into some of the athlete’s naive hypocrisy they showed (or you would hope it was naïve, or it is another case where nationalism overrides rationalism) as their country, well, you saw how Bush was not warmly welcomed.
It would be one thing if they had a passion about Darfur like Joey Cheek, the visa stripped activist does. But they don’t. And if they did, would they be over there now?
Instead, just alone, the reasoning for Lomong selected as the flag bearer for America highlights how politics can eviscerate any pure good out of a situation. Imagined if Lomong didn’t qualify in the 1500 meters, didn’t out perform a disappointing Alan Webb and a surging William Leer for third place on the final day of the trials. Who would have been the flag waver then?
The USOC knew what was going on here, and they knew what the possible story lines that would follow. It was a win-win for them of course; Lomong’s story highlights the greatness of America while they make a political statement simultaneously. Only that the second win really shouldn’t be a win at all. It’s dishonest and shameful. He should have been the flag bearer just on his own merit.
But they aren’t going to say that because you will know how fraudulent they are. They’re not stupid.
Lopepe Lopez Lomong is a man (young man for some of you, not for me since I’m younger) whose story will never be tarnished. But the selection and choice to be America’s flag bearer maybe is so.
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