Darfur Refugee Will Lead U.S. Olympic Team

Lopez Lomong will lead the U.S. Olympic team at opening ceremonies Friday night at Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing. Lomong, one ot the "Lost Boys of Sudan" was selected Thursday as the flag bearer for the U.S. team. He won a vote of team captains to earn the honor at the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Lopez was born Lopepe Lomong, January 1, 1985 in Kimotong, Sudan. He was among roughly 3,800 refugees, dubbed the Lost Boys of Sudan by reporters and aid workers, who were resettled in cities across the United States. Nearly all were boys who had been separated from relatives during fighting in Sudan. They endured months of wandering during which thousands died of hunger, disease or attacks by bandits or wild animals.

Human rights groups have faulted China for doing too little to pressure Sudan, its trading partner, to halt continuous bloodshed in the Darfur region. An estimated 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in a campaign of genocide in Darfur. Lomong was uprooted in 1991 by a grinding civil war in Sudan that pitted Black southerners who practiced Christianity and other religions against a government dominated by Arab Muslims from northern Sudan. The north-south war in Sudan killed 2 million people and displaced 4 million others before a 2005 peace deal ended the fighting. Yet violence still rages in the unrelated conflict that erupted in 2003 in the western region of Darfur. Lomong is a member of Team Darfur, a group of athletes committed to raising awareness about the violence in the Darfur.

The 23-year-old Lomong is a 1,500-meter runner. He was born in Sudan and separated from his family at the point of a gun by rebels, a fate shared by thousands of children in the Darfur, a western area of Sudan. After escaping from a rebel camp with the help of friends at age 6, he spent 10 years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in Tully, New York in 2001 as part of a program to relocate lost children from war torn Sudan and becoming a U.S. citizen a year ago.

Lomong called the honor “the most exciting day ever in my life. It's more than a dream," Lomong said in an interview with the Associated Press moments after he got the news. "I keep saying, I'm not sure if this is true or not true. I'm making the team and now I'm the first guy coming to the stadium and the whole world will be watching me carry the flag. There are no words to describe it. I feel great," Lomong said. "I feel happy, honored. I'm feeling so blessed to get an opportunity to present the United States of America, to present the United States flag in front of my team."

Lopez Lomong began running shortly after the 2000 Olympics. He walked about 5 miles from the Kenyan camp and spent his earnings of a few cents from a landscaping job to pay to watch the Sydney Games on TV.

Lomong attended Tully High School in Upstate New York where he helped lead the cross country and track teams to sectional and state titles, and later competed for Northern Arizona University. In 2007, Lomong was the division I NCAA indoor champion at 3000 meters and the outdoor champion at 1500 meters. He finished third in the distance at the Olympic trials. All three Americans in the 1,500 are naturalized citizens — Lomong, Bernard Lagat (Kenya) and Leo Manzano (Mexico).

After his success at the collegiate level, Lopez signed a contract with Nike and now competes professionally. He specializes in the 1500m run but is a serious contender in every mid-distance race from 800m up to and including the 5k. Lomong is a member of Team Darfur, a group of athletes urging China to exert pressure on Sudan's government to address the violent conflict in Sudan's Darfur.

He is the son of foster parents Robert and Barbara Rogers. Lomong enjoys listening to music. One of his favorite artists is 2Pac Shakur. He plans on majoring in hotel and restaurant management and hopes to have a partnership with a well known hotel like Marriot. His goal is to build a hotel in Africa in order to bring tourists to his birth home and create more of a peaceful environment there. He'd love nothing more than to give people the opportunity to visit the country and interact with the people before prejudging what it may be like there.

NBA Star Works to Stop Darfur Killings

The Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng knows the stakes in the Sudan all too well; He was born there, and he and his family ended up fleeing the African nation for their lives. The refugee-turned-NBA star drew on that personal history recently to appeal for help to stop the bloodshed in Sudan’s Darfur region, where civil strife has left more than 200,000 dead. “We all need to put a stop to this and do whatever we can to stop this”, he told a crowd at a downtown Chicago rally. “I just hope more people will get involved. The 22 year old Deng briefly told how he had left for Egypt at 5 years old.


Other speakers called on China, one of Sudan’s closest allies, to use its influence to end the crisis that has also displaced 2.5 million people. Some activists have even called for boycotts of this year’s Olympics, to be held in Beijing, unless China acts.


Fighting in Darfur began in 2003 when rebels from Black African tribes took up arms, after years of oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government. The government has been accused of unleashing Arab tribal militias against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson.


Deng and his family settled in England when he was ten. “As a refugee, life was tough, but I know it was a lot better than what I would have had if we had never left the Sudan,” said Deng. The six foot nine inch tall Deng is a member of the Dinka tribe that produces many of the tallest people in the world. His father, Aldo, served in the Sudanese parliament and became the country’s Minister of Transportation before escaping to Egypt to avoid Sudan’s civil war. While in Egypt, he was taught basketball by former NBA player Manute Bol, who is also a member of the Dinka tribe. In 1993, Deng’s father was granted political asylum in England.


Deng, who played college basketball at Duke, and is also a member of the Great Britain national team, has been active in several programs providing aid to Africa. Luol is one of nine children; His older brother plays professional basketball in England; another brother, Ajou, played college basketball at Fairfield and Connecticut and his sister, Arek, played college basketball at Delaware. He is very active in the Bulls’ charitable efforts; member of the Bulls’ All-Star Reading Team and participated in the team’s Read To Achieve program; awarded the Charles Lubin Award in October of 2006 for his dedication to community service; coordinated the 2nd Annual Luol Deng Thanksgiving Dinner at the Pacific Garden’s Mission Gospel League Home; made a personal donation to the Bulls’ Holiday Food Drive and Spring Food Drive; attended event honoring the Lost Boys of Sudan and Sudanese Heritage Event in January of 2007; serves as spokesperson for the World Food Program and also for the Nothing But Nets initiative, a grassroots effort to prevent malaria by delivering long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets; received the NBA’s Community Assist Award in April of 2007; during the past three off seasons he has organized a summer basketball camp sponsored by Nike in London, England for NBA hopefuls; received the 2006-07 NBA Sportsmanship Award; was a part of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders tour to Africa in the summer of 2006 and to Europe and Asia in 2007.


Why is it that we only hear about professional athletes in trouble with the law and all the other negative media hype when many more are doing great things similar to these? It is because this does not sell newspapers, magazines and TV commercial time.