Postby peace- » Wed Jan 21, 2009 5:59 pm
LEAD: In a land where more than 60 percent of the people are nomads, living in the deserts with the cattle, camels and sheep they raise, heroes are in short supply, most of them men of the sword or cloth.
In a land where more than 60 percent of the people are nomads, living in the deserts with the cattle, camels and sheep they raise, heroes are in short supply, most of them men of the sword or cloth.
In the rare event one of another ilk emerges, it is usually by happenstance and quite unexpected. Abdi Bile Abdi, for example, never imagined he would be perceived in such a lofty manner. He was like any other child growing up in Somalia, a poor nation of more than seven million people, mostly Moslem, on the eastern shoulder of Africa. Even after he left in 1983 to attend school and run track a continent away, he had no sense of how his triumphs would touch his country. Then, he returned home for several weeks, and he was flabbergasted. Everywhere he went, from the capital city of Mogadishu to the small village of Las Anod where he was born, he watched in amazement as his countrymen strained to shake his hand, to touch him, cheering all the while, raising their fists in symbolic gestures of nationalistic pride and triumph.
Abdi Bile, as he is known in the West, reviews the scene in his mind again and again and still seems astonished.
''The people were everywhere,'' he said the other day, sitting in the bleachers that overlook the track at George Mason University. ''Wherever I went, there was a big welcome. I expected some, but not exactly how big as this. Just to walk around in the cities and towns and everybody recognizes my face, it was kind of exciting. The people, they gave me back motivation and energy.''
The moment that had touched them came in the long shadows of a September afternoon last year in Rome, the final day of the world track and field championships. With 10 finals on the program, the old Stadio Olimpico pulsated with excitement, and now it was time for the 1,500-meter race. Bile (pronounced BEE-lay), who had run the fastest times in the heats and semifinals, took his place among the 12 finalists. Steve Cram, the former world record holder, was there. So was Jose Luis Gonzales, the Spanish champion. ''I did not know what to expect,'' Bile said.
The pace was slow, but time does not necessarily matter in a big race. Cram led at 1,200 meters but Bile caught him and won in 3:36.80, beating Gonzales and Jim Spivey of the United States by more than a second.
To that point, most of those in Somalia familiar with Bile's activities knew him only as a good athlete, little more. Soccer is the national passion, not track and field. Long after his victory, he would encounter friends who said: ''Oh, yes, I saw you race on TV. That was a marathon, wasn't it?''
Bile would laugh and tell them, ''I don't run the marathon.''
He didn't mind. When a country has not won a world championship in anything, what possible difference could the distance of the race matter when it finally did?
When Bile landed at the Mogadishu airport in December, among those who greeted him was Somalia's President, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Siad Barre. Over the next 25 days, Bile traveled the country in a private plane. Upon arrival, he was driven to the center of each town along roads lined with cheering Somalis. ''It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen,'' said John Cook, Bile's coach at George Mason, who watched videotapes Bile brought back. ''People stood 5 and 10 deep to see him, singing, chanting. You'd have thought he was the Pope.''
Last edited by
peace- on Wed Jan 21, 2009 6:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
He looks young for his age.
