Out of Africa: Peter Bol’s dreams on track
Peter Bol will be the toast of his adopted country as he becomes the first Australian in more than 50 years to make an 800m Olympics final.
Peter Bol could so easily have arrived at the Tokyo Olympics under the Sudanese flag.
He could have pursued his first love of basketball. He could have spurned sport and put his university degree to use.
Instead, on Wednesday night at the National Stadium, he will be the toast of his adopted country and a beacon of light for the Sudanese community as he becomes the first Australian in more than 50 years to make the final of the 800m at the Olympics.
“It’s an honour to be able to represent Australia with the highest of standards both on and off the track, and to be the voice to change the narrative and to be Australian means everything,” he said on Monday night.
Bol’s story is one of the more remarkable of not just the Australian team but the entire Olympic Games.
When Australia’s latest hope on the track was barely able to walk, his parents, Abdalla Bol Mador and Hanan Kuku (described as “our high power” by Bol’s brother Michael), packed up the family and hightailed it out of war-torn Sudan. They boarded a boat for four days and arrived in Egypt, where they lived in Cairo for another six years while they waited for a visa to enter Australia.
“Our father had in his mind to just get us out of whatever situation we were in to a better place,” Michael said.
“There are two journeys as a refugee from Sudan — you either go through Kenya where you probably walk, but we went through Egypt.
“The anxiety is the same, if not worse. A ship from Sudan is four days on board to get to Egypt, then another bus for a day to get to Cairo. Then we spent six long years trying to get a visa approved (for Australia) … the anxiety and agony for a long six years.”
When they finally received the green light to fly to Australia, they landed in Queensland and made their way to Toowoomba.
“To be honest, even jumping in a car - we had never jumped in a normal car - the wind and the smell are different,” Michael recalled.
“We had to stop a few times because everyone had to get out and be sick. No one ate any food on the plane because it didn’t look like food to us.
“You got a fork and a spoon - what the hell was this? In Cairo, we had no access to that. We ate off our plate with our hands.”
Four years after they landed in Toowoomba, the family moved to Perth and Peter Bol’s journey to the Tokyo Olympics took flight when teacher Helen Leahy at the St Norbert College encouraged him to try his hand at athletics.
Leahy was struggling to fill the events in the inter-house athletics carnival when one student mentioned that Bol - at the school on a basketball scholarship - could run.
Leahy convinced him to take part in the 400m and he won by 80m. He then entered the 800m and won by 100m. His athletics career was off and running.
Fast forward a few years and Bol struck up a friendship with fellow 800m runner Joseph Deng, prompting him to move to Melbourne where he forged a relationship with James Templeton, the agent who spent a decade guiding the career of Kenyan 800m legend David Rudisha.
He also joined forces with coach Justin Rinaldi. Few people know the nuances of the 800m as well as Rinaldi, the coach of former national champion and record-holder Alex Rowe.
“He was getting a bit lost over there,” Rinaldi said. “He packed up his bags and moved here. He didn’t know anyone.”
Rinaldi is quick to point out it hasn’t been easy. Bol completed an engineering degree but has put his working career on hold to focus on athletics. “He has struggled, he has not got a lot of money out of the sport,” he said.
“He is basically living on $30,000 a year. He is not on Athletics Australia funding - he got dropped from that two years ago. He went to a few major championships and didn’t succeed.
“But I always knew what he was capable of. Once he started believing in himself - that was the only issue. He had to believe he could do it, and now he does.”
Rinaldi has had to adjust his expectations. Bol has hovered near the front and swooped in his two races thus far, highlighted by his performance in the semi-final on Monday night where he set a personal best of 1:44.11m to become the first Australian since Ralph Doubell in 1968 to qualify for an Olympic final.
“There is no real person in the final who will take the lead and push the pace,” Rinaldi said. “We have to think about how we go about it. You don’t want it to be too slow and bring everyone into the race. It would be great to get a medal but if you are in the final, you have to go for the win.
“You might never be in an Olympic final again. You have a chance - just go for it. He is an amazing kid. He is so kind and humble. Sometimes in this sport you think you need a bit of mongrel in you and nice guys fall by the wayside. He is proving that wrong.”
In Perth, the Bol family will gather round the TV at the family home on Wednesday to savour every moment. Their journey has been long and at times difficult. It may yet culminate in a gold medal.
“Mr Peter Bol, he is an amazing guy,” his brother Michael said. “When he sets his mind and a goal, he works towards it. We feel like we have won gold already.”
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