1996 OLYMPIC MARATHON 'He made us free'
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from August 1996.
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That Thugwane, 25, even ran in the race seems a miracle. As an Ndebele from the town of Bethal in the eastern highlands, he grew up poor and disadvantaged like most blacks in the apartheid era.
Sports meant soccer or running, requiring nothing more than the open spaces and dirt roads of his settlement. Only whites could use the fancy tracks and stadiums in town, the law said.
Thugwane played "a lot of soccer" as a youngster, dreaming of someday getting paid more money than possible from the menial labor available to blacks.
Then in 1988, at age 17, he decided to enter a local half-marathon. "I ran in that race and I won 50 rand (dlrs 11.50)," he said through an interpreter to yet another inSouth African marathon winner, Josia Thugwane, dedicated his gold medal to Nelson Mandela. terviewer a few hours after his victory Sunday.
"That was it. I was a runner. Here was a way to make money."
Despite his miniature stature - Thugwane stands 1.58 meters (5-foot-3) and is grass-blade thin - his staccato stride that never seemed to tire brought success.
