Olympic mettle: athletes who overcame barriers to get to London

For some Olympians, the struggle to qualify for the 2012 Games may be as notable as what will happen there.

|
Juan Carlos Ulate/Reuters
A Costa Rican runner laces up for a training session.

One is a marathoner who, until four years ago, had never heard of the Olympics and was forced to borrow running shoes to compete in local races in the malevolent mountains of Peru. Another is a middle-distance runner from Somalia who used to have to avoid sniper fire while training along the "road of death" in Mogadishu. A third is a young weightlifter from Iran, built like a cask, who carries the pride of a nation quarreling with the West on his stevedore shoulders.

While most people who watch the London Olympics will be following the marquee names and story lines – swimmer Michael Phelps's quest for medal immortality, sprinter Usain Bolt's defiance of the limits of human speed, the next queen of gymnastics – many other athletes will provide notable narratives for what they have accomplished just to get to the Games.

Many of these are people you've never heard of, who nonetheless may end up on a podium with medals and a lifetime of dreams draped around their necks. Others will remain anonymous, known only to loyal followers in their home countries. But all come with powerful stories of having overcome great adversity or carrying additional burdens just to compete on the oval tracks and padded mats of London.

They, in fact, embody the spirit of the Games as outlined in the Olympic creed: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle." Today and over the rest of this week, we profile eight athletes notable for their journeys to, as well as their potential success in, London.

Sunday:  

Gladys Tejeda: Getting to the Olympics on borrowed shoes

Monday:  

Hiroshi Hoketsu: A Japanese Olympian defies the age barrier

Kayla Harrison: An American Olympian rebuilds a life through judo and friends

Tuesday:  

Mohamed Hassan Mohamed: Training for the Olympics in the shadow of war

Behdad Salimi: An Iranian Olympian carries the weight of a nation               

Wednesday: 

Yamilé Aldama: A British track star jumps through a tough decade

Geeta Phogat: How an Indian wrestler defied gender taboos

Thursday:

Tahmina Kohistani: Afghan sprinter tries to beat the clock - and pollution

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Olympic mettle: athletes who overcame barriers to get to London
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Olympics/2012/0722/Olympic-mettle-athletes-who-overcame-barriers-to-get-to-London
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe