In a big step forward for U.S. distance running, the men's winner of Sunday's New York City Marathon was an American, Meb Keflezighi -- the first American winner since 1982. He's been saluted across the country, including getting an invitation from David Letterman to do the Top 10 list.
For most Americans, watching an American win a major sporting event is a source of pride. And yet some American writers are claiming that he's not really one of us.
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Foremost among them is the usually sane Darren Rovell of CNBC, who writes that the first American winner of the New York City Marathon in more than a quarter of a century is "not as good as it sounds" because Kaflezighi is "not American-born." Rovell explains that he won't break out the red, white and blue until an American who was born in the USA wins the race.
Yes, it's true, Keflezighi was born in Eritrea. He and his family came to America when he was a child, he starred in track and cross country at an American high school, he got an athletic scholarship to UCLA and became a U.S. citizen the same year he graduated, and then he became a professional distance runner. Prior to winning the New York City Marathon, his greatest accomplishment in the sport was winning the Olympic silver medal for Team USA in 2004.
Keflezighi's life is a great story -- a great American story. It was the American flag Keflezighi waved when he won the New York City Marathon, and no matter what anyone may say, Keflezighi is a real American.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-03-2009 @ 4:50PM
jzz3skys said...
And we should also talk about the women, because you'd be surprised at how poorly some of them are treated in their own countries and it has nothing to do with citizenship. Paula Radcliffe, for instance, the world record holder by 3 minutes over everyone else, is often accused of "not winning the big one," meaning the Olympics, which is about the only thing she hasn't won. And then she made some innocent remark about a sports stadium in the UK where a World Track and Field Championships were held (she said that she hopes this remains a stadium for track and field), remarks which have since been twisted out of context as being "anti-soccer"! Some national sports federations often make their women marathon champions practically jump through hoops just to be included on the Olympic squad, something that I think happened to the Kenyan former world record holder Tegla Laroupe.
Of course, Meb Keflezighi of Mammoth Lakes, CA is an American and so is the #9 finisher on Sunday, Abdi Abdirahman of Tuscon AZ, whose story is very similar to Meb's except that he was born in Somalia rather than Eritrea. He's a two-time US Olympian in track events other than the marathon.
Another American distance runner, New Yorker Khalid Khannouchi, born in Morocco, set the world record in the marathon as an American citizen at Chicago in 2002 (2:05:38), however, unlike Meb, he was already an adult and one of the world's elite runners when he became an American citizen. So, unlike Meb, Khalid is a product of another country's coaching system.
But Eritrea, unlike countries like Morocco, Kenya, and Ethiopia, hasn't produced any great distance runners or marathon champions that I know of, although, admittedly, I don't claim to know much, so I looked it up.
Eritrea's first runner to break the modest mark of 2 hrs. and 20 minutes is Yared Asmeron, and it happened in 2004 in San Sebastian, Spain. Since that date, he's run a 2:08:34, however, Sunday's NYC marathon field included 5 men who had run under 2:06:17, including one, James Kwambei, who ran 2:04 (!) and two, Martin Lel and Jaouad Gharib who've run 2:05 (!), and then two who've run 2:06, Patrick Makau and AMERICAN RYAN HALL (who placed fifth on Sunday)! Then you had former NYC Marathon winners Hendrik Ramaala and Marsilon Gomes dos Santos, and Robert Cheruiyot, a FOUR TIME WINNER of the Boston Marathon (who placed second to Meb on Sunday).
Besides Keflizighi and Abdirahman, there were three more U.S. Olympians in Sunday's race: Jorge Torres who placed 7th, and Brian Sell, 31st, and Dan Browne, whose name I can't find in the database.
Nick Arciniaga of Rochester Hills, MI placed 8th and Jason Lehmkuhle of Minneapolis 10th, Peter Gilmore of San Mateo, CA #12, Mike Sayenko or Bellevue, WA #14, Mike Reneau of Holton WI, #15, etc.
So there's no advantage I can see to being an Eritrean, or, in Meb's case, a young war refugee from Eritrea. He wasn't even running there.
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