On August 8th, Roman Cress will stride into the Olympic Stadium. The Minneapolis sprinter will be running the 100 meter dash for the Marshall Islands. Cress’s father is a Midwesterner and went to the Marshall Islands as a Peace Corps volunteer and married a Marshallese woman. They then moved to Minnesota, so he has citizenship in both countries. In college, Cress was a super fast sprinter. Cress had hoped to represent the Marshall Islands when he was 22 in 2000, but the Islands failed to qualify because they didn’t represent enough sports. This year the Islands qualified for the first time, and Cress is its only male athletes. Cress is training at the junior high where he also works, but he’s not in Olympic shape. The world’s fastest men run the 100 meter dash in under 10 seconds, and his fastest time is barely under 10 seconds but that was nearly 10 years ago. Now that school is out, Cress is getting to the track more frequently. Cress wonders if he’s past his prime. No matter, the Olympics are just around the corner.
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