by Chris Bodenner
A reader writes:
Thank you for publishing the Afghan taekwondo medalist Rohullah Nikpah's elation as the
Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Along with a hundred or so others, I stood on Piedmont Road in northeast Atlanta to watch the marathon. We had been told police cars would come along when all runners had passed to reopen the street. After all the faster runners had passed us, and all the slower runners had too, there was a long gap. But no police cars. An officer at our intersection radioed and came to tell us there was one more runner.
Word quickly passed among our small crowd to cheer wildly no matter who it was. Soon enough, a lone runner came over the crest of a hill south of us. A spotter for whoever was broadcasting those Games had a clipboard and binoculars. She checked the number on his bib. He was from Afghanistan.
Afghanistan was last in the 1996 marathon. He was limping. He face told us he was in pain. But he was in the race. And we cheered wildly. We waved and shouted and jumped up and down and waved and clapped and shouted. And he waved back. And he smiled at us.
His name was Abdul Baser Wasiqi. He was limping because he pulled a hamstring before the race. He did finish, and he finished last. He was the only person on the Afghanistan team in 1996.
Seeing Kurt Angle and Kendall Cross of the USA win gold medals in freestyle wrestling, and choking up while "The Star Spangled Banner" was played, is my strongest memory of attending those Games. The smile on the face of the marathoner from Afghanistan, the last runner, is almost as strong.
The Dish 