Meb's scintillating victory at the Boston Marathon yesterday was enough to make many get a little teary eyed. Of course, living in the internet age, I heard conspiracy theories about how the race was rigged to let Meb win and the ever-popular "Meb isn't really American." We heard the latter back when Meb won NYC Marathon in 2009. I thought perhaps we had evolved as a society since then but it appears in some circles we have not. As such, I felt I would find the excerpt from my book 138, 336 Feet to Pure Bliss which actually talks about this exact subject.
***********
Many were predicting an American would win New York in
2009. However, use of the term
“American” was almost always a not-so-veiled code word for Ryan Hall. Hall had won the Olympic Trials handily, had
paid his due on the international circuit and seemed poised to take over the
mantle as the next great threat to breaking the Kenyan running monopoly on top
of the leader boards. So, when
Eritrean-born naturalized US citizen Meb Keflezighi won the race, setting a
personal best at the same time, it was a shock to many. Meb’s win was not a surprise because he was
unknown to the running community but rather because of his rather disappointing
racing results for the previous two years.
Starting at those same Olympic Trials in 2007 that really put Hall on
the map, where a hip injury bothered him all the way to a 2:15:09 eighth-place
finish, Meb had done very little to instill confidence he would ever be near
the top of his game again. Until this
fateful day ending in Central Park in Manhattan, that is.
Meb’s win became both a day of pride for Americans as well
as one which lit up discussions about what exactly an “American” was. Leave it
to New York to add to its already long-list of historical race finishes a
social, economic, and racial discussion which was long overdue.
During the race, instead of the usual sponsor splashed
across his chest, Meb was wearing a singlet showing the country he is a citizen
of: the United States of America. As the first American to win the race, male
or female, since 1982, it seemed almost surreal that Meb chose to wear his Team
USA shirt for this—his first victory ever in a major marathon.
However, the immediate discussion popping up in newspapers
and around the Internet was that Meb was not a “real” American. Also, his victory
was no indication of U.S. distance running being on the rise for that same
reason—he was not American. The problem with this is that arguments of this
nature are blatantly incorrect on their face incorrect simply because they mix
the issues.
During my travels I once had a discussion with two American
runners. However, I was the only one in the discussion who was actually born in
the United States. Talking about a myriad of running topics, we gravitated
toward Meb and his victory as it has just happened a few months prior. We were
almost in complete agreement about most of the underlying issues.
-American long distance running, while having been in quite
a swoon for a very long time, seems to be rebounding.
-People want American distance running to get better.
-Whether they would admit it or not, some were hoping that
the aforementioned “American distance running” champion would have far paler
skin than Meb.
Without delving too deep into the underlying racial issues
here, it was clear to see that part of the problem was not only that Meb was
not born in the U.S., but his victory did not exactly signal the beginning of
the return to American-born preeminence in distance running. This was where the
confusion in the question lies.
First and foremost, Meb is 100-percent American. Any
argument otherwise is ignorant of U.S. law. He is a citizen of the United
States, and unlike many of those who just happened to be lucky enough to be
born within the borders of this country, he actually had to take a test for that
privilege. Meb’s citizenship is an indisputable fact.
However, the question about the origin of the dominance of
African-born distance running remains. Whether it is genetics, the nature of
the lives of those runners (high-altitude training and living, lack of modern
conveniences which make running a “way out”, etc.) or something else, Africans
are currently cleaning house in distance events world-wide. Therefore, to those
who refuse to admit surprise, Meb’s victory is not all that impressive. In fact, by their view it is just another
victory for the “African” distance runner.
To discount Meb’s heritage as a contributing factor to his
success would be to do so at the risk of great folly but to discount his
upbringing would do the same. And this
is where the real issue lies. Basically,
is the American distance running system creating the right environment for
Americans, either natural born or naturalized, to succeed on the world scene?
The U.S. has been fortunate lately to have great success amongst its natural-born
citizens like Hall and Dathan Ritzenhein, but Meb’s victory at New York is
also a victory for the system itself. You see, genetics play a large part in
success of an athlete but are not the complete puzzle. Training, attitude, and
coaching make up far larger portions than many give them credit.
Meb’s victory in New York came long after he had moved to
America and lived and trained within an American system.
His victory was just as much a victory for
the American distance running program (and his own hard work) as it was for his
genetics. Americans might not be ready to dominate the sport just yet, but the
future looks bright indeed. The pieces are in place and they fit together well,
regardless of the different shades of color that they are painted.
No comments:
Post a Comment