A Hard Run to Glory

Ronald Cortes

The Philadelphia Inquirer

From Soweto, it's a hard run to glory. South Africa is back in the Olympics, but its black athletes have a long way to go. This is not a story of the 5 black athletes that are part of a 16 member track and field team for this year's Olympics, but of those aspiring to make the next trip to Atlanta. In Soweto, with only one track field(not built for running, but built for wheelchair races-the track is owned by the self-help association for Paraplegics) South African runners have every reason to give up-but they haven't. If there is an impatience for accelerated change here, there is also a remarkable resilence and private hope that withstood public hopelessness. Black and white girls run together, but not necessarily on equal footing, in this 10-K race in Johannesburgh.

Ronald Cortes, "A Hard Run to Glory," in POYi Archive, Item #20604, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/20604 (accessed April 21, 2025).