Sports Illustrated article on Sammy Wanjiru's death

"When a coach asked Sammy if he was interested in attending school in Japan, he answered that he had no idea where Japan was but that he was ready to go."

Awesome.

Clever, but it takes a bit more effort to chisel the full phrase on a tomb stone. And money. Not so with typing on the internet.

garland823 wrote:

Clever, but it takes a bit more effort to chisel the full phrase on a tomb stone. And money. Not so with typing on the internet.

Maybe using the abbreviation is a reference to the abbreviation on tomb stones.

My favorite phrase in this Sports Illustrated article is "bickering women". That pretty much sums up Sammy's life and death right there, doesn't it?

Concerned Citizen wrote:

garland823 wrote:

Clever, but it takes a bit more effort to chisel the full phrase on a tomb stone. And money. Not so with typing on the internet.

Maybe using the abbreviation is a reference to the abbreviation on tomb stones.

I'm aware that it stems from the abbreviation on tombstones. That's not really important. If you're going to take the time to announce your sympathy, show the deceased some respect and type the full thing out. "RIP" makes some sense on a tombstone. It does not on a computer.

garland823 wrote:

I hate when people post "RIP". Why would you take such a short cut when you're trying to honor somebody's life? I see it all the time on Facebook, which is even more inappropriate because they actually know the person who died. Is it that much harder to type rest in peace out?

Maybe you should dig up some epigraphists from centuries past and ask why they didn't spell out the Latin (requiescat in pace). Such insincerity should never be tolerated.

they tend to do that wrote:

My favorite phrase in this Sports Illustrated article is "bickering women". That pretty much sums up Sammy's life and death right there, doesn't it?

Sammy's not alone there, is he?

This is weird. Just yesterday in real life I heard someone who used 'garland' as an email address talk about the inappropriateness of posts on facebook about people who died. Am I hallucinating?

Oofah wrote:

they tend to do that wrote:

My favorite phrase in this Sports Illustrated article is "bickering women". That pretty much sums up Sammy's life and death right there, doesn't it?

Sammy's not alone there, is he?

Guess he had 100 problems. I feel bad for him, son...

"Falling onto the balcony was not enough to cause injuries to his knees and hands but being knocked down from behind is?"

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You make an interesting but yet somewhat sarcastic point! However, it still doesn't explain the discrepancy in the injuries, the convenient camera failure or the contradictions in the accounts of those supposedly present!

How does a body incure trama to both sides from a fall of ten feet? If the first report was exaggerated or false about the injury to the hands and knees, then why? Why would that be cooked up and for what motive?

If he did somehow manage to end up 180* and end up summersaulting and coming down on the back of his head, then almost surely his neck would have been broken! But that was not mentioned or reported!

The explination given simply is not plausible! Why would he have needed to jump the railing in the first place? Whom was he chasing if the car had already pulled away and if the gate was automatic and self-locking? Who's he jumping for?

One report said that he apparently hit his head on the lock that was on the storm drain cover and it was that, that caused the injury to

the back of his head. Well, that doesnt work either if a contrecoup injury

was confirmed.

There are simply too many unanswered questions that have not been thought through clearly to simply call this an accident! He was murered in my opinion and until someone comes forward with a tenable explination, I will not believe otherwise!

Jurgis Rudkus wrote:

I've noticed SI has been doing a lot more coverage on pro running lately, anybody know why? Is this just an Olympic year thing, a vast Nike-funded conspiracy or are they just (gasp) realizing that running is a legitimate sport to cover?

I've noticed the increased coverage too. Rupp & Lagat have been getting some nice coverage lately.

Great but incredibly sad article.

I did like the line about him glancing at his watch to unsettle the others at beijing.

He is greatly missed.

Sad to see that there are red necks in Kenya and Sammy was one of them.

Sammy was a 20 year old who landed 10 million bucks (equal to 100 mill for us) with a background of total poverty. Very difficult to deal with new found money.

The article portrays him as a good and generous guy to his "friends". He was clearly in over his head. This is a tragedy.

Craig Neff, asst managing editor at SI, is a running fan.

Wiener wrote:

Sammy was a 20 year old who landed 10 million bucks (equal to 100 mill for us) with a background of total poverty. Very difficult to deal with new found money.

The article portrays him as a good and generous guy to his "friends". He was clearly in over his head. This is a tragedy.

The story mentions that the average Kenyan family earns $1K/ year. So Sammy's $10,000,000 would be more like $500,000,000 in the US. A staggering rocket ride from absolute poverty.

Sammy's mom raised him to be her chump (with no fater to provide counterguidance) and she and Njeri cashed him out in the end.

I wonder what Usain Bolt's life is really like.

pettygrove AC wrote:

Craig Neff, asst managing editor at SI, is a running fan.

The writer of the article ran for Columbia.