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| Meb Keflezighi winning the Boston Marathon today. |
He's the first American to do so since 1983.
There will be a lot of commentary about the symbolism of an American win a year after the Boston Marathon bombing.
Certainly a nice touch, to put it mildly.
And there will be a lot of commentary about the interesting juxtaposition of having an immigrant win the Boston marathon, a year after some ugly comments about immigrants, given the Boston Marathon bombers last year were immigrants.
In a post race interview, in which Keflezighi looks about as "exhausted" as if he'd just walked half a block instead of winning the marathon, he said, "You know what? I'm blessed to be an American."
I also love it that you can see briefly, in the background among the spectators right after Keflezighi's win, a man in a white cowboy hat near the finish line.
The white cowboy hat guy is Carlos Arredondo, who was in the iconic Boston Marathon bombing photo as he helped rush a greviously injured spectator, Jeffrey Baumann to medics, a move that saved Baumann's life. By the way, Arredondo is another immigrant, from Costa Rica.
As the Fox news story in the above link notes, Arredondo has become something of a comforter in chief for Boston. And now we have Keflezighi to add to the mix.
But I won't worry about the politics now. You'll see the video, below, all over the place over the next few days but I have to share it now, anyway. The announcers are besides themselves as Keflezighi comes in for the win.
And another side isuse. Keflezighi is 38 years old! How does such a "geriatric" guy win the Boston Marathon?
One of the announcers says near the end of the clip, "Now it doesn't hurt anymore."
Indeed.
