General
A One-Man Team’s 10-Second Olympics
Winzar Kakiouea, a 100-meter runner, is the only competitor at the Paris Games from his Pacific island nation. His debut might be over in a flash.
As his nation’s lone athlete at the Paris Olympics, Winzar Kakiouea carries an additional burden: Most people have no idea that his country is a country.
Also, his homeland could one day disappear into the ocean.
First, a brief geography primer: Nauru, with a population of less than 13,000, is an island nation perched in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Once known as Pleasant Island, Nauru (pronounced NO-roo, not Nah-oo-roo) gained its independence in 1968, after a period of trusteeship by the United Nations. Its economy for decades depended on guano, or bird poop, a key ingredient in fertilizer. Mining destroyed parts of the island; chunks of Nauru slid into the sea. Climate change is nibbling at its shores, too.
“Most people don’t know about Nauru,” Kakiouea said. “When I tell them about it, they are shocked that this little, tiny place is a country.”
On Saturday, Kakiouea, 23, will compete in the preliminaries of the men’s 100 meters. He is very fast — the fastest man in the expanse of the Pacific known as Micronesia — but it is probably safe to say that his Olympics will be over in fewer than 11 seconds.
Still, Kakiouea’s presence in Paris is testament to one of the Olympics’ most charming features. During the Games’ parade of nations, smaller countries stand on equal footing with larger ones. China, Cape Verde, Canada, Curaçao and the Cook Islands cohabitate among the Cs. Both American Samoa and the United States of America get their due.
