RIO DE JANEIRO — Germans rolled luggage into the Olympic Village, Slovaks stood proudly at the raising of their national flag, and a delegation from Benin posed for photos in yellow floral prints and lobster-red hats. Nearby, a woman from Kenya, barely 5 feet tall and all but unnoticed, signed off on her project to give an Olympic home to athletes who had none of their own.
里約熱內(nèi)盧——德國人拉著行李進(jìn)入奧運(yùn)村;斯洛伐克人驕傲地佇立觀看自己國家的國旗冉冉升起;貝寧代表團(tuán)身穿黃色印花服裝、頭戴龍蝦紅的帽子擺姿勢拍照。不遠(yuǎn)處,有一位僅5英尺高的肯尼亞女人,幾乎無人注意;她要給那些沒有國籍的運(yùn)動(dòng)員在奧運(yùn)這個(gè)大家庭里安一個(gè)家。
“Peace, unity through sports,” she wrote on a mural.
“通過體育實(shí)現(xiàn)和平和團(tuán)結(jié),”她在留言墻上寫道。
Tegla Loroupe will participate in her fourth Olympics, this time not as a groundbreaking marathoner but as a peace ambassador bringing attention and compassion to the global refugee crisis.
泰格拉·洛魯佩(Tegla Loroupe)將第四次參加奧運(yùn)會(huì),但這一次她不是作為一名打破記錄的馬拉松選手,而是作為一名和平使者,引發(fā)人們對(duì)全球難民危機(jī)的關(guān)注和同情。
She is the leader of a group of 10 displaced athletes, known as the Refugee Olympic Team. It will march Friday in the opening ceremony, carrying the Olympic flag, serenaded by the Olympic anthem.
她是十名無家可歸的運(yùn)動(dòng)員的領(lǐng)隊(duì),他們被稱為奧運(yùn)會(huì)難民代表團(tuán)(Refugee Olympic Team)。在周五的開幕式上,他們將伴隨著奧運(yùn)會(huì)會(huì)歌、拿著奧運(yùn)會(huì)會(huì)旗入場。
Five of those athletes prepared for the Rio Games at a training camp operated by Loroupe in the hills outside Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. “I think I have the strength to prove that even small people can do something big,” she said.
其中五名運(yùn)動(dòng)員,曾在洛魯佩位于肯尼亞首都內(nèi)羅畢郊外的山上組織的訓(xùn)練營里備戰(zhàn)里約奧運(yùn)會(huì)。“我想我有能力證明,小人物也能干大事,”她說。
There is much to be wary and cynical about regarding the Summer Games — like the corruption and the doping and the commercialism — but the opening ceremony can provide a flickering respite from pessimism, a brief chimney sweep of the sooty Olympic ideal.
本屆夏季奧運(yùn)會(huì)有很多讓我們提防和嘲諷的東西——比如腐敗、興奮劑和商業(yè)化——不過開幕式能讓我們暫時(shí)擺脫悲觀,掃除蒙在奧運(yùn)會(huì)理想上的污跡。
Perhaps no one represents hopefulness in international sport more resolutely than Loroupe. She refused to succumb to a life of expected subservience as a young woman and has spent her postrunning career offering possibility instead of despair.
也許沒人能比洛魯佩更能堅(jiān)決地代表人們對(duì)國際體育的希望。年輕的時(shí)候,她拒絕屈從于人們的期待,不愿過那種奴顏婢膝的生活;在跑步生涯結(jié)束之后的人生里,她給人們帶來希望,而非絕望。
“People treat these refugees like criminals,” Loroupe said Monday. “We need to treat them with respect.”
“人們像對(duì)待罪犯那樣對(duì)待這些難民,”洛魯佩周一說,“我們需要尊重他們。”
In the running world, Loroupe, 43, is celebrated as the winner of the New York City Marathon in 1994 and 1995, the first black African woman to win a major marathon, a former world-record holder at the distance of 26.2 miles.
在長跑界,43歲的洛魯佩曾在1994年和1995年兩次獲得紐約馬拉松賽(New York City Marathon)冠軍,是第一位贏得一項(xiàng)重要馬拉松賽事冠軍的非洲黑人女性,也曾是26.2英里馬拉松世界紀(jì)錄的保持者。
But her running has been overtaken by her goodwill and activism.
不過,她的親善和行動(dòng)主義蓋過了她的賽跑成績。
Under the banner of the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, she has organized peace races among tribal rivals, trying to resolve conflicts with conciliation instead of weapons.
她以泰格拉·洛魯佩和平基金會(huì)(Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation)的名義,在敵對(duì)部落之間組織和平賽跑,努力用調(diào)解而非武器解決沖突。
“I always go where there are not good people,” Loroupe said. “I want to help them.”
“我總是前往沒有好人的地方,”洛魯佩說,“我想幫助他們。”
In 2011, the mostly Christian and animist South Sudan gained its independence from mostly Muslim Sudan. All five of the refugee Olympians trained by Loroupe, two women and three men, are from South Sudan. They were identified during trials held to find runners in 2015 at two refugee camps inside neighboring Kenya.
2011年,以基督徒和泛靈論者為主的南蘇丹(South Sudan)從以穆斯林為主的蘇丹脫離出來,實(shí)現(xiàn)獨(dú)立。洛魯佩培訓(xùn)的五名奧運(yùn)會(huì)難民運(yùn)動(dòng)員——兩名女子和三名男子——都來自南蘇丹。2015年,在鄰國肯尼亞的兩個(gè)難民營里舉行的跑步選拔賽中,他們被挑選出來。
Across the world, there are 63.5 million people displaced by fighting and persecution, according to the U.N. refugee agency, often unwanted by politicians, unable to reconnect with their families or any confident future.
根據(jù)聯(lián)合國難民機(jī)構(gòu)的數(shù)據(jù),全世界有6350萬人因戰(zhàn)亂和迫害無家可歸,他們往往不受政客們歡迎,無法與家人重新取得聯(lián)系,前途渺茫。
“In a year when refugees have found borders, camps and minds closed, the International Olympic Committee did something remarkably open,” wrote Minky Worden of Human Rights Watch. “The creation of a refugee team reframes the debate, to focus not on fear and pushing away but on inclusion and celebrating the resilience and potential all refugees represent.”
“在難民們看到邊界線、難民營紛紛關(guān)閉,思想封閉的一年里,國際奧委會(huì)做了一件非常開放的事,”“人權(quán)觀察”組織(Human Rights Watch)的明基·沃登(Minky Worden)寫道,“難民代表團(tuán)的設(shè)立改變了這場爭論,把焦點(diǎn)從恐懼與拒絕,轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榘菀约皩?duì)所有難民所代表的適應(yīng)力和潛力的贊揚(yáng)。”
One of the refugee Olympic athletes from South Sudan is Yiech Pur Biel, 21, an 800-meter runner who fled from his village in 2005 and stayed with a neighbor while his mother and brother headed toward survival in Ethiopia. He said he had not heard from them since. He was told they were OK, but he also knows that people are reluctant to give the worst news.
其中一名難民運(yùn)動(dòng)員、21歲的耶什·普爾·比爾(Yiech Pur Biel)來自南蘇丹,他是800米選手。2005年,他從村里逃出來,和一個(gè)鄰居待在一起,而他的媽媽和弟弟(或哥哥)前往埃塞俄比亞求生。他說,從那以后,就失去了他們的消息。他被告知他們都挺好,不過他也知道人們不愿說出最壞的消息。
“Tegla is our mother, not only our leader,” Biel said. “Most of us run because of war. Madam Tegla gives us a chance for other people to know the history of our lives. And we can forget what happened before. We can celebrate. We can have hope, like everyone else.”
“泰格拉是我們的媽媽,她不只是我們的領(lǐng)隊(duì),”比爾說,“我們大部分人是因?yàn)閼?zhàn)爭逃離家園。泰格拉夫人給了我們一個(gè)機(jī)會(huì),讓其他人知道我們以前的生活。我們現(xiàn)在可以把過去的事情拋在腦后。我們現(xiàn)在可以慶祝。我們可以像其他人那樣擁有希望。”
Another of the refugee Olympians is Paulo Amotun Lokoro, 24, a 1,500-meter runner. He was lost while fleeing his Sudanese village in 2003, unable to keep up with his parents. He did not reunite with them until three years later at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. That is where Loroupe discovered him last year.
另一名奧運(yùn)會(huì)難民選手、24歲的保羅·阿穆通·洛科羅(Paulo Amotun Lokoro),是1500米長跑運(yùn)動(dòng)員。2003年,他從他家住的蘇丹那個(gè)村子跑出來時(shí)迷了路,與父母失散。直到三年后他才在肯尼亞的卡庫馬難民營與家人團(tuán)聚。去年洛魯佩就是在那里發(fā)現(xiàn)他的。
At first, Lokoro thought he was not good enough to be a serious runner. Or that this might be some kind of a joke.
一開始,洛科羅覺得自己不夠優(yōu)秀,不夠資格做職業(yè)長跑選手。覺得這是在開玩笑。
“I was nowhere,” Lokoro said. “Now I am somewhere.”
“以前我看不到未來,”洛科羅,“現(xiàn)在我有了希望。”
It is an emotion that Loroupe understands. She is a Pokot, not a Nandi, the dominant Kenyan running tribe. In her native village of Kapsait, near the border with Uganda, community leaders did not want her to run because she was a girl. Her father did not want her to go to school. He expected her to be a baby sitter.
洛魯佩對(duì)這種情緒深有體會(huì)。她是波科特人,不是南迪人,后者是肯尼亞最主要的跑步部落。她的村莊Kapsait離與烏干達(dá)的邊界不遠(yuǎn),村里的頭人不想讓她去跑步,因?yàn)樗桥ⅰK赣H不想讓她上學(xué),想讓她去當(dāng)保姆。
“Her father called her ‘Useless’; that was his name for her,” said Anne Roberts, a former coordinator of elite athletes for the New York City Marathon who has been a close friend of Loroupe’s for more than two decades.
“她父親稱她是‘無用之人’,那就是他給她起的名字,”紐約市馬拉松賽優(yōu)秀運(yùn)動(dòng)員的前協(xié)調(diào)員安妮·羅伯茨(Anne Roberts)說。她成為洛魯佩的密友已有20多年。
But, of course, Loroupe was not useless. She became a great runner. And when the men in her training group asked her to cook their food and wash their clothes, she explained that she was an athlete, not a maid.
洛魯佩當(dāng)然不是無用之人。她成長為一名偉大的長跑運(yùn)動(dòng)員。當(dāng)訓(xùn)練組的男人們讓她去做飯洗衣時(shí),她說自己是運(yùn)動(dòng)員,不是女仆。
She and Roberts talked often about how a running career is short and the rest of life is long. “You’ll be judged on what you do after your career, not while it’s going on,” Roberts told Loroupe.
她和羅伯茨經(jīng)常談?wù)撆懿绞聵I(yè)很短,剩下的人生很長。“人們不會(huì)在你還是運(yùn)動(dòng)員的時(shí)候評(píng)價(jià)你,而是根據(jù)你跑步生涯結(jié)束之后做的事情對(duì)你做出評(píng)價(jià),”羅伯茨曾經(jīng)這么告訴洛魯佩。
In 2014, Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, presented Loroupe with an idea of entering a refugee team in the Rio Olympics. Last year, the IOC established a $2 million fund for the project.
2014年,國際奧委會(huì)主席托馬斯·巴赫(Thomas Bach)向洛魯佩提出一個(gè)想法,在里約奧運(yùn)會(huì)上推出一個(gè)難民代表團(tuán)。去年,國際奧委會(huì)為這個(gè)項(xiàng)目設(shè)立了一個(gè)200萬美元的專項(xiàng)資金。
When the team was selected in June, Bach said: “This will be a symbol of hope for all the refugees in our world, and will make the world better aware of the magnitude of this crisis. It is also a signal to the international community that refugees are our fellow human beings and are an enrichment to society.”
這支代表團(tuán)于今年6月選好后,巴赫說:“這將成為世界上所有難民的希望象征,將讓世人更好地了解這場危機(jī)的嚴(yán)重性。它也在提醒國際社會(huì),難民是我們?nèi)祟惖耐?,是社?huì)的財(cái)富。”
The refugee Olympians will not win gold medals, Loroupe said, “but they will not disappoint.”
洛魯佩說,奧運(yùn)會(huì)難民選手不會(huì)贏得金牌,“不過他們不會(huì)令人失望的”。