The first time Abraham Majok Matet Guem competed in a track race, he ran in his black school shoes. Guem – now a 21-year-old Olympian representing South Sudan – was so fast he quickly caught the eye of a coach, who bought him proper running shoes and sportswear.
“I used those for some years, and there was no way when that one got finished that I’d have any money to buy another one or get another pair of shoes,” Guem told CNN’s Blake Essig.
But as a budding track athlete, his high school intervened – giving him a scholarship and loaning him running shoes, which he gave back to the next student after he graduated.
For aspiring South Sudanese athletes, training has always been a challenge. Many of them, said Guem, struggle to get one square meal a day and train on uneven rocky terrain.
“I think around 60% of athletes do not have even a pair of shoes, so they run barefoot,” he added.
「アスリートの約60％は靴さえ持っていないので、裸足で走っていると思います」と彼は付け加えました。
南スーダンのアスリートの60%はちゃんとシューズを持っていない。
なので、裸足で走っていると思う。とゲムは言っています。
ゲムが最初にスクールシューズで走っていたよりも、さらに悪い状況です。
In 2011, South Sudan gained independence and became the world’s youngest country. But civil war erupted two years later, killing an estimated 400,000 people and forcing millions from their homes to create Africa’s biggest refugee crisis and the world’s third-largest after Syria and Afghanistan.
Despite the hardships, running kept Guem going. At the 2019 Africa Games held in Morocco, he broke South Sudan’s national record for the 1,500 meters and was selected to become part of his country’s Olympic team.
Since November 2019, he and three other South Sudanese athletes and their coach have been living and training in the small Japanese city of Maebashi in Gunma prefecture – around a two-hour drive from Tokyo.
While many Japanese towns and cities that signed up to host Olympic teams have been forced to rethink their plans due to the ongoing pandemic, Maebashi is an exception.
When the pandemic delayed the Games by one year, the city of 350,000 people raised almost $300,000 nationwide in taxes and donations like running shoes and athletic gear in December 2020 to ensure the Olympians and their coach could stay on in Maebashi – and cement an Olympic legacy.
Guem said he and his team’s mission is to promote the importance of unity at home in South Sudan. The 1,500m runner said he sought to represent South Sudanese states other than his own at local and national competitions.
That thinking is in line with a South Sudanese sports festival dubbed “National Unity Day,” which has been co-organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), a government agency supporting growth in other countries, and the South Sudan Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. In its fifth year, that event brings together young people from all over South Sudan.
While the participants come from different tribes and ethnic groups that might not see eye-to-eye, the sports festival provides a space for them to find common ground.
The youths, for instance, all sleep in the same building, dine together, and can interact freely, and get to know each other, said Guem, who took part in 2016.
“Sports is one unifying factor that is very necessary for a country like South Sudan,” he added. “When you have war, and you are always kept apart, you don’t come together. And I’m sure the guys went back with different mindsets about others.”
コメント