This makes me prouder of the US team than anything that will happen on the field:
Lopez Lomong, a Lost Boy of the Sudan and a member of Team Darfur, was selected Thursday (Beijing time) as flag bearer for the U.S. Olympic team in Friday’s opening ceremonies — the same day winter Olympian Joey Cheek had his visa revoked by China because of his prominent role with Team Darfur.
Cheek, a 2006 gold medal-winning speedskater who expected to arrive in Beijing today, is angry that the Chinese government is taking this “effort to suppress discussion about human rights.”
He was happy about Lomong’s selection but said it had no bearing on his situation. Lomong, 23, a 1,500-meter runner, was born in Sudan and driven from his family after a rebel attack. After escaping from a rebel camp at 6, he spent 10 years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in Tully, N.Y., and becoming a citizen a year ago. “His selection is a statement to how moving his story is,” Cheek said. “The fact that he survived these tragedies is an amazing story.”
Cheek is co-founder of Team Darfur. He had planned to attend the Games to support the 70-plus athletes who will be competing in Beijing who have signed onto Team Darfur. The group is critical of the Chinese government’s funding of the Sudanese regime responsible for the genocide in Darfur.
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