Word: olympian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Kenya, Lomong watched runner Michael Johnson win gold in the Sydney, and he was hooked. "It was so great to see somebody cheering for somebody running," says Lomong. "Running is something we did all our lives. It was our transportation." He told himself then that he'd be an Olympian. Now, just eight years later and a new U.S. citizen, he has not only carried the American flag in front of millions of television viewers around the world, he'll be running the 1,500-m for the United States...
...ties to the oppressive government responsible for so much destruction? On Friday morning, he was repeatedly asked by the international press to join the critics of China's human rights record, its ties to the Sudan, and its decision to revoke the American Darfur activist and former Olympian Joey Cheek's visa. Each time, Lomong dodged. "I'm here to inspire other kids who are out there watching these Olympics," he said at one point...
...Lomong went on to become a middle distance star at Northern Arizona University, and has now arrived as a first time Olympian. This is his moment. He's had a traumatic, remarkable story, and he deserves to spend it however he wants. If it's not about China, it's all about him. In Lomong's case, that quite all right...
...certain island that competes under the name of Chinese Taipei. Three Olympic debutantes appeared in Beijing: Montenegro, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu, a South Pacific nation whose very existence is threatened by global warming. China's flagbearer Yao Ming, at 2.29 m (7 ft. 6 in.) the Games' tallest Olympian, loped along the same path as 1.43 m (4 ft. 8 in.) American gymnast Shawn Johnson. Four athletes from Iraq, which in July had been banned briefly from the Games because of a tiff with the International Olympic Committee, got one of the night's biggest cheers, after the hosts...
...team of foreign protesters scrambled up lampposts near the iconic "bird's nest" National Stadium to hang FREE TIBET banners. Three Christians were bundled out of Tiananmen Square after displaying signs calling for religious freedom in China. Then came the news that Beijing had barred entry to former U.S. Olympian Joey Cheek, a speed skater and prominent critic of China's closeness to the Sudanese regime blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur. (The Cheek incident didn't stop the U.S. team from choosing a prominent member of a group of athletes who lobby...