Olympian of the Day: David Katoatau
Why is this man dancing?
Well, he hopes that people will notice him, and then ask themselves "Where the hell is Kiribati?"
Kiribati is one of the many island nations in the Pacific that is under severe danger of disappearing under the waves if global warming makes sea level rise as much as feared. Katoatau is personally aware of the danger. He used his winnings from weightlifting competitions to build a house for his parents, only to see it washed away in flood waters.
He also finished last in his weight class, which may lead people to ask why these athletes who have no chance at winning a medal are allowed to compete. Ah, but then there are the people on social media who ask what it might be like if ordinary folks competed against the greats like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps.
As it happens, there are "ordinary folks" in the competitions already. They just don't usually make it past the first heat. The IOC has basic standards for every event. So, in theory, if you meet those standards, you're eligible to compete. As an example, in the Men's 100m sprint, the qualifying time is 10.16 seconds. This year, EIGHTEEN athletes from Jamaica met that standard - more than all 48 Asian nations combined. So to make it fair, the IOC limits nations to three athletes per track event. Other events have their own limits. To fill up the heats, the IOC then hands out "free passes" (they're called "universality places") for various sports. For example, each nation can enter one male and one female athlete in each of swimming and track & field. So no matter what, a nation can field a team of four athletes if they choose to do so.
Richson Simeon was noticed by the Marshall Islands Olympic Committee in a video of him playing high school football (he's from California, but his parents are from the island nation). Would he be interested in representing them in the 100m sprint in Rio? Some quick training - he had to be shown how to set up in the starting blocks - and he was off and running. But not very fast. In his first race this March - against junior high school students - he came in dead last with a time of 12.3 seconds. More practice saw him improve a little; at the Micronesian Games in June he had a time of 11.87 seconds. It was time to go to Rio. His first race there would be the fifth race of his life.
In swimming, the shortest race is the 50m freestyle. In the men's division, over half of the 80 athletes entered are "universality" ones. Probably no one from their home countries is there to see them. Heck, there's probably more swimmers and officials there than spectators in the early heats. But those who are there quickly warm up to the swimmers, and cheer them on. They recognize the effort....
Why do these athletes bother?
"I want the kids to know there’s something besides football." - Thibaut Danho, a swimmer representing Côte D'Ivoire
"I want to encourage women’s swimming, I want to encourage women’s sports. It takes changing the mentality of the people. As a country, we have been very progressive, except maybe in sports. We are trying to do that one step at a time." - Nada Al-Bedwawi, United Arab Emirates
Oh, in case you're wondering, Simeon finished the 100m with a time of 11.81. Last place....but a personal best.
You could argue that Simeon’s improvement was irrelevant. The Marshall Islands needed a sprinter and he was that sprinter. They told him all he needed to do was try. Whether he performed well or poorly, he still fulfilled his job of ensuring the country had somebody, anybody, on the track in Rio. You could even argue that his slowness was a boon: Because he finished last, more journalists like me talked to him, learned his story, and helped tell the world about the Marshall Islands, their problems, and the imminent climate change crisis they face. If he finished fifth-from-last, maybe he walks through the media zone unnoticed.
If Simeon didn’t improve his time at all, this would still be the story of a converted football player with no track experience representing a tiny nation in the Olympics and coming in last. This story started with a runner who finished in last place in a meet in Sacramento, and ended with a sprinter who finished in last place in Rio. The only differences are the time it took him to finish, and the stage he did it on.
And to Simeon, those two things mean everything.
"I just ran my personal best at the Olympics," Simeon says. "I don’t even have words."
- Rodger Sherman, "The story of the slowest athletes at the Rio Olympics, and why they compete", SB Nation, 8/19/16