Marathon to Independence

Aguida Amaral kneels on the track as an official informs her she has one lap left to run
(Image from BBC)

In the women’s marathon race at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, a woman ran into the stadium more than 45 minutes after the winner had won her gold medal. Aguida Amaral of East Timor was one of four Timorese athletes allowed to participate in the games, even though East Timor hadn’t officially been granted its independence. Her completion of the marathon course was the culmination of a long journey, both for her and for her people.

The Indonesian government had been trying to suppress the movement for Timorese independence for more than twenty years, often brutally. David Wallechinsky tells the story in The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics: ” In 1999, Amaral and her three children were forcibly separated from her husband and sent to live in a refugee camp where they slept on the ground next to a dirt road. An Australian-led international force entered East Timor and stopped the Indonesian killing of the Timorese. Amaral and her children were reunited with her husband. However, her running shoes had been stolen, so she trained barefoot.”

As she entered the stadium, in 43rd place, she knelt down and kissed the track. Officials notified her she had another lap to complete, so she stood up, ran her lap, then repeated her ritual. She hadn’t just completed a race. She’d reached the end of an even longer journey.

Amaral, though proud, competed under the Olympic flag at the Sydney games. Four years later, she’s preparing to run the marathon again, this time under the flag of her own nation. Though you probably won’t catch her finish on the North American television coverage, somewhere in the Pacific, an entire nation (and a young one, at that) will be glued to their TVs and radios, straining to hear her name.

More on the runners of East Timor