This week at the Olympics, there’s a runner you’ve never heard of.
She’s from a place you haven’t been, and most people never will.
And yet – It’s the most heartwarming story you’ll read.
A thread 🧵
This is Rose Nathike Lokonyen.
She grew up in South Sudan.
When she was just 8, militants stormed into her village and killed her neighbors.
She ran barefoot, all night in the dark, just to make it to safety.
(📸 UNHCR/Bobby Pall)
People in the neighboring village gave her family shelter, but only until they could make it to Kenya.
Again, they walked day and night to safety.
This was their new home.
The Kakuma Refugee Camp, one of the biggest in the world.
(📸UNHCR/Siegfried Modola)
The camp was designed for 55,000 people.
Instead, it has 200,000.
Rose was lucky to get a spot in primary school. But then, life changed again.
Her parents went back to South Sudan to look for her grandparents.
As a child, Rose was now the head of the family.
(📸/UNHCR)
Between raising her siblings and going to school, her teacher asked her to participate in a 10-km race.
She didn’t have any shoes, so she ran it all barefoot.
She came in second.
(📸UNHCR/Hector Perez + Anthony Karumba)
Later that year, she was invited to the national trials, where she finished first.
They told her she’d be going to Rio to compete in the Olympics.
She had no idea where Rio was.
She thought it was somewhere in Kenya.
(📸UNHCR/Benjamin Loyseau)
In Rio, she was one of ten refugees to represent first ever all-Refugee Team.
With just a year of training, she finished seventh in her 800-metre trial.
Against the best athletes in the world.
She finished seventh.
(📸UNHCR/Benjamin Loyseau)
When she came back home, she landed a spot at Kenya's top training camp for runners.
Then last year, Covid hit.
Everything closed.
She went back to the refugee camp, where she still ran once a day in 40-degree Celsius heat.
(📸UNHCR/Anthony Karumba)
This week, Rose is back at the Olympics.
She’s running the 800-metres again.
When they announce her name, hardly anyone will know her story.
Now, you do.
Sports is awesome.
(📸UNHCR/Antsushi Shibuya)
Update:
After the Olympics, Rose will have a new home.
Canada has admitted her under a new pilot program that provides athletic scholarships to refugees.
She'll have a place to live, and tuition to go to school.
Dreams do come true.
🇨🇦
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