Nico Young Breaks American Outdoor 5K Record Best New Balance Shoes made the team going to Rio, fans instantly took notice. Who were these standout athletes and what kind of military program was backing their running endeavors?
Nutrition - Weight Loss New NCAA Roster Limits Just Got Approved. He graduated from Iowa State University in 2011 and was uncertain about his running future, and his life’s path. The native of Eldoret, Kenya, was a four-year standout for the Cyclones since arriving in Ames in 2007, his career highlighted by a runner-up finish in the steeplechase at the 2009 NCAA championships as a sophomore.
But Bor’s collegiate career ended unsatisfactorily in June of 2011, when crossed the finish line a disappointing 12th at NCAA championships. “And after that I was thinking, maybe running is not my thing,” he said. “So I went back to Iowa State and did my masters [in accounting], and I really didn't compete for two years.”
Today, however, Bor is once again running at the highest level. On July 8, when he finished runner-up to Evan Jager in the steeplechase at the trials, he clocked a personal best mark of 8:24.10. In Rio this month, Bor will be one of four members of the Army's World Class Athlete Program (WCAP) representing the United States in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
That's right, Bor is now an American citizen. He joined the U.S. Army in 2013, which put him on a fast track to citizenship, and he gradually resumed his running career by representing the military branch in events such as the Army Ten-Miler in Washington, D.C.
Green card holders typically wait five years to naturalize, but the process is expedited for immigrants in the military. In 2009 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) established the Naturalization at Basic Training Initiative, which gives noncitizen enlistees the opportunity to naturalize upon graduation from basic training. Athletes do not move through the naturalization process any faster than other foreign enlistees.
Bor is straightforward about his decision to join the Army.
“I was at Iowa State five years,” he said, “and that is enough time to understand what the United States is all about. I knew then I wanted to be a citizen, and the only way I was going to do that was to sign up for four years and give back what this country has given me.”
Bor’s two brothers, Emmanuel and Julius, ran while attending the University of Alabama and followed Hillary’s lead in joining the Army.
In 2014, after completing his basic training and becoming a U.S. citizen, Bor was assigned to Fort Carson, near Colorado Springs, Colorado, and resumed training for the steeplechase that year under Scott Simmons, coach of the American Distance Project. An eighth-place finish at the 2015 World Military Championships in Korea encouraged Bor to make a push in 2016. At the Stanford Invitational in April he ran to victory in 8:30.70, less than a second off the Olympic qualifying time for the steeplechase. Bor was added to the WCAP roster following the Olympic Trials.
Dan Browne is the WCAP head track and field coach and was one of the first WCAP team members after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1997. Browne eventually achieved U.S. top-3 rankings at 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters, and the marathon. He was the last U.S. Olympian to run the 10,000-meter and marathon double at the Games in 2004. Deployed shortly after retiring from competitive running in 2012, Browne was asked to head up the WCAP track and field program in November of 2013.
“This opportunity to stay involved with the sport of track and field is really a blessing,” Browne said. “And it's a way to be an ambassador for the U.S. Army and show how Army strong these guys are and what we can accomplish. It's such a joy to see these them succeed and play a small part in it, and I'm very grateful.”
Bor is the newest addition to WCAP's small group of distance runners. Joining him in Rio are three others. Browne brought Paul Chelimo, Shadrack Kipchirchir, and Leonard Korir to the trials and all three performed well enough to make the U.S. team. Chelimo When four out of four runners donning the U.S. Army racing jersey at the Cooper Lutkenhaus Breaks 29-Year-Old HS 800 Recordwent two-three New NCAA Roster Limits Just Got Approved Galen Rupp.
Browne is careful to point out the challenges of being part of WCAP. “Number one, you have to want to join the U.S. Army and serve,” he says. “And number two, you have to meet the program's entry standards, which are rather difficult.”
The athletes must obtain qualifying times to apply to be in WCAP in their event specialty. For example, the men need to have raced a 28:15 for 10,000 meters or 2:15 for the marathon.
Each member of the program has a job, also known as a military occupational specialty. Bor and Kipchirchir are financial management technicians, Chelimo is a water treatment specialist, and Korir is a motor transport operator. None will be deployed while in the program unless a highly unusual situation arises that demands it.
All members of the program go through Army basic training for 10 weeks, learning tactical and survival skills, how to shoot, rappel, and march, among other skills. Then they move on to training for their specific areas of expertise.
“These guys have had to do basic training and advanced individual training. So it's four to six months, at least, of really being away from their focus of running,” Browne said. “There's a period of time it takes them to get back to the high level where they were before, and I think that's what we're seeing right now. The program's trajectory has been good, and I've already put together my vision for 2020.”
