Word: cameroons
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TIME: When did you decide to do the Olympics? Menyoli: When I went to Cameroon in 2000. I liked to race but I never expected that I would ski in the Olympics. There was no reason, because it wasn't like I would win an award or anything. But then I went to Cameroon and saw the suffering and it's really terrible out there. People are just so illiterate about the HIV/AIDS problem. They don't accept that it exists. So I thought, I can punish my body, almost like I am sacrificing myself. I want...
...there were a prize for Most Unlikely to Succeed in Sport at Salt Lake, Isaac Menyoli would be a front-runner. The 29-year-old cross-country skier from Cameroon is his nation's first-ever Winter Games representative. He hits the trails in Salt Lake with a mission in mind: to draw attention to the need for AIDS education in his homeland. He spoke with TIME's Jeff Chu last week from his home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Excerpts...
TIME: What kind of support have you had from Cameroon? Menyoli: Only administrative support from the national organization (the NOC). I tried to do this through FIS and they said they don't talk to individuals. The NOC were responsible for getting my code through FIS [the International Ski Federation], which I needed to qualify. My bosses [at his architecture firm in Milwaukee] have been amazing. They have supported me so much. I owe them. Some firms would have just said...
...also tried downhill but says, "Why would you want to go through that? I could slam into a tree and just die!") Though he wasn't much good, he thought he could do well enough to cause a stir. Then he could attempt a noble bait-and-switch, getting Cameroon's television or radio stations to give him air time to tell about his Olympic experiences and using that platform to talk to his countrymen about AIDS. Maybe they would listen to one of their...
...Menyoli got in touch with the International Ski Federation, which told him to go to his national Olympic organization. "I was surprised that a Cameroonian could be interested," says Colonel Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, president of Cameroon's National Olympic and Sports Committee. "But I heard the idea and supported him." With his country's administrative backing and his own savings, Menyoli set off for Alaska and Canada last fall for his five required qualifying races. He placed last in four races and second-to-last in one, but finishing was all that mattered...