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Kenyan swimmer Jason Dunford and his 7 minutes of fame
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by ksjhalla | August 15, 2008 at 09:07 am
1296 views | 2 Recommendations | 10 comments
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A Kenyan swimmer overshadows American swimming sensation Michael Phelps for 7 glorious minutes
For seven memorable minutes, the world stood up and watched as brilliant Kenyan swimmer Jason Dunford held the Olympic 100 metres butterfly record that he shattered on the way to making it to Friday’s semi-finals of his speciality at Beijing’s National Acquatic Centre.
Stunned swimming analysts froze in awe inside the 18,000-seater “Water Cube”, one of Beijing’s architectural masterpieces, as the 21-year-old student of human physiology at Stanford University swam 51.14 seconds to break American Michael Phelps’ old mark of 51.25 that he set at the Athens Games four years ago.
Jason was swimming in Heat Seven which he won by 0.23 seconds ahead of second-placed Australian Andrew Lauterstein.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (10)
at 21:59 on August 15th, 2008
ksjhalla, I like this story. It's good stuff.
See here for more over Phelps: http://www.nowpublic.com/sports/u-s-swimmer-michael-phelps-wins-seventh-gold-medal-and-1-million-dollars-bonus
at 01:14 on August 16th, 2008
bravo to our dear kenyan brother jason!well,kenya in general has produced the world great who would imagine that an american whose origin is kenya would be contesting for the next president?a mayor in canada with kenya origin?thats just awesome.long live kenya.
at 06:48 on August 17th, 2008
Kweli uli fanya vizuri sana , well done Jason Dunford
at 10:43 on August 17th, 2008
If Jason Dunford who is proudly representing Kenya at the olympics decided to run for elections in Kenya, would the politicians and Kenyans of Black skin embrace him as one of their own? Or are they only celebrating him now because he's putting Kenya on the map??
Would they really vote for him if he was running for president or would they say "Kenya is not ready for a white president"?? Hmmm....Just curious.....
at 17:19 on August 18th, 2008
I remmember when we almost made Fabisch president "FABISCH FOR PREZO"
at 17:12 on August 18th, 2008
Jason Dunford for President of Kenya.
Kenya is ready. Too ready.
at 05:57 on August 25th, 2008
K Low - I'm a black Kenyan and immensely proud of Jason. But your claim that "they [are] only celebrating him now because he's putting Kenya on the map", is ridiculous as the world was well aware of our country long before Jason was born. Also, why jump to the conclusion that he will follow his swimming success with a career in politics, or that a white president would be any better than a black one ?
Kenya has always celebrated and been fiercely proud of all its athletes regardless of the colour of their skin. Leave your agenda aside and focus what's important here, Jason's achievement was amazing and we're all very happy for him and wish him every future success.
at 10:40 on August 29th, 2008
If Jason ran for politics as a Kenyan, why wouldn't we embrace him as our own? His grandparents were born in Kenya for goodness sake. He's as Kenyan as I am (I'm black Kenyan) there's no doubt about that. Colonialism ended almost 50 years ago and the difference then and now is how deep his roots run in the country unlike the colonialists of old who came off a ship, thought they were better than the natives and decided they would rule over them without giving them any say in the matter - which brings me the next difference. If elected Jason would then be a politician in politics with the people's mandate which the colonials did not have. Well done Jason!! You've made Kenya proud and if you were to enter politics I would judge you on you policies and personality not your skin colour.
at 20:40 on August 1st, 2009
We should be past his debate by now! Jason IS A KENYAN who just happens to be 'white'.
We constantly undermine our collective potential, and recognition of our uniqueness as a nation whenever we go down the ethnically divisive path in our dialogue.
I am 'black', but know many Kenyans not my colour who are more patriotic than a lot of so called "indegenous Kenyans!
at 22:36 on August 4th, 2009
Colour seems to be a big issue all over the world, people just can't seem to see past it.
We are the generation that must see past the skin, why are these issues arising? has Jason whispered to a little birdie that he wishes to persue politics?
Stop racial discrimination, we are the next generation, we don't judge people by their skin colour, we can't choose our race, but we can choose to be gracious, unprejudiced and gratefull generation. Well done Jason! Keep shining.