Marathon Olympian Passed Away

The Beijing Olympics were not very long ago, as we watched hundreds of gold medals given out to champions. The whole world dreams of getting that gold medal, being the best in their field and honored in front of billions of people. Sammy Wanjiru lived out this dream. The now 24 year old won a gold medal, running a marathon in record breaking time, passed away. His performance in Beijing was considered one of the most impressive marathon times in history, and he has since run in various countries winning the London Marathon as well as the Chicago Marathon twice. Since his win, Wanjiru's personal life has gone downhill. People question if this downward spiral was due to his huge success and wide acclimation in Beijing. He once was charged with threatening his wife and maid, waving a gun in the air. The charges were dropped but more serious injuries kept him out of races. The death was first ruled a suicide but then details emerged that it was possible that the incident began as a domestic dispute, which started as Wanjiru's wife found him with another woman. He was supposed to run again in London's olympics next year, and strongly favored by marathon runners around the world. This death, and Wanjiru's great success followed by hard times poses much question of what lies ahead of athletes who have reached their dreams. While many athletes are able to persist and look toward the next Olympics or World Cup, for example, that is a long time to train with little reward in between. Regardless of why, the entire athletic world mourns the death of the young Kenyan gold medalist.