40-year-old Meb Keflezighi, the Michael Jordan of marathon running, qualifies for Rio 2016 Olympic Games
Refugee from war-torn East Africa who won Boston and New York marathons set to represent USA at a fourth Olympic Games
Keflezighi celebrates with two of his three daughters after qualifying for Rio (Getty Images/Joshua Blanchard)
When the marathon runners enter the home straight at the Sambódromo during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in August, one man deserves to receive a particularly loud cheer. At 41, Meb Keflezighi will be the oldest athlete from the USA to complete an Olympic marathon, but his story is much more than that. A refugee from East Africa who spoke little English when he arrived in America as a child, Keflezighi is set for his fourth Olympic Games in the twilight of an inspirational career.
He became the oldest US athlete to qualify for an Olympic marathon when he finished second in the US trials on Saturday (13 February) in Los Angeles. At 40 years, 284 days, the Eritrea-born runner who has won the Boston and New York marathons – not to mention silver at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games – has surprised the experts.
Running historian Ryan Lamppa told the San Diego Union-Tribune: “It’s borderline superhuman. It’s so atypical for athletes to stay motivated, maintain the drive, enjoy the training, show up on race day and deliver.”
“This is a one-in-a-million type athlete. He has that intangible ‘it’ that people talk about, like Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky”
Ryan Lamppa, running historian
Keflezighi with his silver medal alongside Italy's Stefano Baldina (gold) and Brazil's Vanderlei Lima (bronze) at the Athens 2004 Games
(Photo by Getty Images/Bongarts/Vladimir Rys)
Keflezighi’s achievements and longevity are all the more impressive considering his humble beginnings. He did not see a television until he was 10 years old, when he looked behind the set, trying to find the people on the screen.
Aged 12, he ran a five-minute, 20-second mile at his school in San Diego, prompting his PE teacher to tell him: “One day you’re going to the Olympics.” He went home and asked his father: “Dad, what are the Olympics?”
Keflezighi, who has been a dinner guest of President Barack Obama at the Whitehouse, is the only person to win the USA’s two most prestigious marathons and an Olympic medal, leading Lamppa to say of him: “I think Meb is the greatest American marathoner ever.”
The man himself does not plan to stop anytime soon. “You should not decay or fade away so drastically,” he said in the days leading up to the trials.
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