FORMER REFUGEE AND BOSTON MARATHON WINNER MAKES THE OLYMPICS—AGAIN

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By Liz Alper

 

Photo:  Keflezighi in the 2014 Boston Marathon.  Credit to Gr5 on Wikipedia

 

February 15, 2016 (Los Angeles) - Two years ago, ECM ran a story on Meb Keflezighi, the incredible local refugee-turned-athlete who won the Boston Marathon in 2014.

 

Always dreaming bigger, Keflezighi is realizing one of his biggest dreams two years later--he's going to his fourth Olympic games, this time in Rio de Janeiro.

 

The amazement doesn't stop there.  At 40, Keflezighi is the oldest American to qualify for the marathon and the only marathon runner to win both the Boston and New York marathons and a medal in the Olympics, a silver medal at the 2004 games in Athens, becoming the first American male since Frank Shorter in the 1976 summer games in Montreal to medal in the marathon.

 

Keflezighi, a San Diego High School graduate who emigrated to America as a child from Eritrea and began his impressive running career at Roosevelt Junior High, placed second in Saturday's U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials with a time of 2:12:20.

 

In 2014, when he was 39, Keflezighi won the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:08:37.  He has had to overcome various struggles to achieve so much, such as a hip injury that prevented him from qualifying for the 2008 Beijing games.  

 

Meb's story is truly that of a champion.  And he's doing it all at age 40, 5'5" and 125 pounds.

 


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