Just Like That

Sammy Wanjiru is dead.

Just like that. Suddenly, without warning. Kenya's first ever gold medal marathoner has passed away. There will be no more races, no more medals, no more victorious homecomings. He will not defend his podium in London in a little over a year.

Does everyone remember last October in Chicago? That incredibly hot day, where Wanjiru, outlasted, and finally uncorked an unforgiving kick in the last 600 m to win the Chicago Marathon, and his second consecutive World Marathon Major title? That grit, and that determination were awe inspiring. He seemed down after ever surge put in by Tsegaye Kebede in the final miles, but in the end he was victorious.

That same determination compelled him and drove him in the stifling heat of Beijing in 2008 to the fastest time ever recorded by an Olympic marathoner, and the first Golden hardware ever worn by someone from Kenya in the marathon. He was merciless and relentless in the pace he set, and he suffered no companions. He did it on his own, and left the field behind.

How can this great champion no longer be with us?

Obviously the last 6 months of his life are wrought with strange goings on and a seemingly day time drama plot line. From the alleged attempted murder of his wife, who ended up dropping all charges, the bizarre car wreck he was in, and now an apparent suicide, all seem to show that something in his life was not lining up.

We still await word for what truly happened to Sammy. It appears he fell off, or jumped off the balcony of his home in Kenya. How high up that balcony is, or why he did it, or what happened in the moments before, none of us know, but I can tell you one thing, I hope it is all a giant mistake, I want Sammy Wanjiru to still be with us.

Don't you?

He made history, and he did it with an unassuming smile when the races were over, but an assassin's glare in the heat of competition. People barely knew who he was in Beijing, other than another up and coming Kenyan star, but he vaulted far beyond that in the years following. He became the odds on favorite to break Haile Gebrselassie's world record in the marathon. He seemed invincible. Now, he is gone.

He was Kenya's Prefontaine.

He was young. He was charismatic. He knew how to win, and how to do it with flare.

He was not ill. He had not been suffering from a disease. Twelve hours ago he was a living, walking, and running human being. This day was not supposed to end with the death of a rising legend. Neither was the night that Steve Prefontaine left this earth.

As we digest this tragic news, and the news and events become clearer, no matter whether or not it paints Sammy in a positive or negative light, lets remember him for what he would do out on the roads. Let us be inspired by his uncompromising will to win. Those phenomenal paces he set. The day that he tore through the streets of Beijing while others suffered the toils of a Chinese summer. The morning he finished off a 26.2 mile marathon in the last .2 miles by pulling away. Remember his smile and his charisma. Remember that he, and runners like him are a gift to us all who aspire to ask our bodies to consistently go to their limit.

Remember Sammy Wanjiru, the champion.