Lopez Lomong was born in the Sudan 23 years ago, spent the first few years of his life there, was abducted by militias when he was 6 years old and forced to train to become a child soldier. He escaped, and spent the next 10 years of his life in a refugee camp in Kenya. He finally made it to the United States as a refugee, one of the 27,000 Lost Boys of Sudan--survivors of the second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2003) that cost 2 million lives and rendered tens of thousands orphans.
Now Lomong is part of Team Darfur, "an international coalition of athletes committed to raising awareness about and bringing an end to the crisis in Darfur.”
In July 2007, Lomong became an American citizen. Two days before the Beijing Olympics, where he was to compete in the 1500m, he was told that he would be carrying the American flag into the Bird’s Nest, Beijing's fabulous Olympic stadium.