Guor Marial has a marathon to complete this weekend at the Summer Olympics, but he will be doing this with no nation to represent and no countrymen to cheer him on.
Marial fled his home as a 9 year old in the midst of the
Sudanese civil war. With great difficulty, he
eventually escaped to Egypt, where he lived with an aunt and uncle. Then
to New Hampshire, where he attended high school. And Iowa, where he
enrolled in college. And now Arizona, where he lives, works and runs.
But Marial doesn’t identify himself as American and certainly not as
Sudanese. He’s running under a white flag that
features the Olympic logo.
“Representing the five rings, it’s the best,” Marial said Friday. “I’m representing the whole world, basically.”
