What a powerful performance, what a demonstration of perseverance – even after 42Km and 2 ½ challenging running you still seem to have enough energy to celebrate big time with the crowd – that’s what I call the spirit of Abebe Bikila – the Ethiopian spirit.
The Gold is yours, the Olympic Record is yours (2:23:07) and the joy is ours.
The last women’s Olympic record is 2:23.14 set by Naoko Takahashi of Japan at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
“With so many Africans in Greece… the West Nile mosquitoes will at least eat homemade food!!!” she had posted on her Twitter account.
The country’s Olympic Committee said she was being pulled from the team because her comments were against the Olympic spirit.
“She showed no respect for a basic Olympic value and unfortunately she is out,” Greek mission chief Isidoros Kouvelos told SKAI TV. “She made a mistake and in life we pay for our mistakes.”
The 23-year-old athlete, who was scheduled to leave for her first Olympics next week, later apologized for what she said was “an unfortunate and tasteless joke”.