Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia, who won the silver medal in the men’s marathon at the Rio Olympics, during an award ceremony on Sunday.CreditRobert F. Bukaty/Associated Press
As Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia crossed the finish line in his silver-medal marathon run at the Rio Olympics on Sunday, he raised his arms and crossed them in an X, a gesture of protest against his country’s government that he said could get him killed if he returned home.
He is uncertain where he will go next, and what will become of his wife and two children in Ethiopia.
“If I go back to Ethiopia, maybe they will kill me,” he said at a news conference after the race, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. “If I am not killed, maybe they will put me in prison.”
An accomplished distance runner who has one of the 50 fastest marathon times, he defied an Olympic prohibition on political demonstrations to make his statement, raising his arms again in protest at the race’s medal ceremony. He quickly attracted supporters on social media.
Antigovernment protests in Ethiopia, an American ally that has experienced stability and a growing economy over the last decade, have been growing recently, with thousands of people demanding political changes.
Human rights groups say the protests have been met by brutal crackdowns by the government, including the shooting deaths of unarmed protesters. A Human Rights Watch report in June estimated that more than 400 people had been killed in seven months, almost all of them civilians.
Protesters in the Oromo ethnic group, Ethiopia’s largest, say they feel marginalized. The Tigrayan ethnic group makes up about 6 percent of the population but dominates in politics, the military and commerce.
“The Ethiopian government is killing my people, so I stand with all protests anywhere, as Oromo is my tribe,” Mr. Lilesa said, according to The Washington Post. “My relatives are in prison, and if they talk about democratic rights they are killed.”
He told reporters he did not know where he would go next, but mentioned Kenya and the United States as possibilities, according to a video from LetsRun.com.
PUBLISHED: 04:14 GMT, 20 August 2016 | UPDATED: 04:14 GMT, 20 August 2016
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Ethiopian long distance runner Gebo Burka was slapped with an 18-month ban after a failed drug test, the United States Anti-Doping Agency announced.
Burka tested positive for the banned steroid prednisone after winning the 2016 Houston Marathon. Prednisone is a synthetic hormone that helps reduce inflammation.
Burka "tested positive for the prohibited substance prednisone as a result of an in-competition urine sample he provided on January 17, 2016," the USADA said in a news release. "Prednisone is a substance in the class of Glucocorticoids and is prohibited in competition."
Burka's ban is retroactive to the date of his failed test, which means he will be eligible to return to competition in August 2017, the USADA said.
He must also forfeit all his results from January 17 and afterward, including his Houston Marathon title.
Burka told the USADA he had a prescription for prednisone and was using it in small doses, but failed to disclose it on his pre-race Therapeutic Use Exemption forms.
Burka's Texas marathon victory had extended Ethiopia's winning streak in Houston to eight races.
He has won five career marathons, including Los Angeles and Sydney in 2014.
His personal best is a 2:08.12 he posted while finishing runner-up in the 2015 Houston race.
Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya wins the London Marathon last year. He's the favorite in the men's marathon in Rio.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
The Kenyans vs. the Ethiopians.
Like many distance events at the Rio Games, and Olympics past, it often boils down to a race featuring the indefatigable runners from these two African neighbors.
And that's a likely scenario in the women's marathon this Sunday, and the men's next Sunday, the final day of the Summer Olympics.
In every men's and women's marathon since 1996, at least one Kenyan or Ethiopian has made it to the medal stand, with one exception. And that exception proves the rule.
At the 2004 Games in Athens, no Kenyan or Ethiopian man made the podium in the marathon, but the silver medalist was American Meb Keflezighi, who was born in Ethiopia in 1975 (His birthplace of Asmara is now the capital of Eritrea, which broke away from Ethiopia in 1993, after he and his family had left as refugees).
Helah Kiprop of Kenya, Eunice Jepkirui Kirwa of Bahrain and Mare Dibaba of Ethiopia enter a cooling station during the Women's Marathon final during day nine of the 15th IAAF World Athletics Championships Beijing 2015 at Beijing National Stadium on August 30, 2015 in Beijing, China.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images
The Women's Marathon
In the streets of Rio on Sunday morning, Kenyans Helah Kiprop and Jemima Sumgong lead their team. Kiprop won the Tokyo Marathon in February and Sumgong took the London Marathon.
The top-rated Ethiopian is Mare Dibaba, who won the World Championship Marathon in Beijing last summer.
The women's marathon is a relatively new Olympic event. It wasn't contested until 1984 when U.S. runner Joan Benoit ran to glory. She remains the only American woman to ever win a marathon.
Cragg won the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in February, with Linden second and Flanagan third. For Cragg, that race was redemption. She just missed the team in 2012 when she finished fourth in the trials.
Linden made the U.S. team for the 2012 Olympic Marathon in London, but did not finish the race due to an injury. Flanagan finished 10th in London. Olympic marathons tend to be slower and more tactical races, so the American runners could also be contenders on Sunday.
The Men's Marathon
In the men's race on Aug. 21, the favorite has to be Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge. He's been just about unbeatable on the world stage in the last two years.
He has the world's fastest marathon time this year, winning the London Marathon in 2 hours, 3 minutes and 5 seconds.
And, not surprisingly, his toughest competition could well come from his teammateStanley Biwott, who won the New York Marathon last year and can in second to Kipchoge in London this year.
The top Ethiopian runner is Tesfaye Abera, who ran a 2:04:24 marathon to win in Dubai in January.
And two other contenders come from the same neighborhood: Eritrea's Ghirmay Ghebreslassie, the surprise winner of the 2015 World Championship Marathon in China, and Uganda's Stephen Kiprotich, the reigning Olympic champion.
The Americans, meanwhile, have an impressive team that could also be a factor.
Keflezighi — the silver medal winner back in 2004, and the fourth place finisher in 2012 — is back again at age 41.
Galen Rupp, 30, won a silver medal in London at 10,000 meters and took the the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon in February — which was his first ever marathon.
Both the men's and the women's marathons start and finish at Rio's famous Sambodromo, the parade area built for Carnival. What happens in between will determine who stands on the podium this Sunday and next.
