By: Ray Wu

Uganda has been in war for much of the late 1900’s, and its lack of laws failed to prevent criminal behavior. Criminals would often kill cattle and illegally sell the meat and would sometimes kill local people. Now, has the country been doing any better?

Over decades, Uganda has made changes to become what it is today. Previous generations would chase animals until they were too tired, often after hours of work. This made running an important part of their culture. Present citizens of Uganda want to keep their history relevant, so they started to host distance running races. Kiplimo, an athlete, started both a 5k and 10k contest. His grandfather was a master hunter and was often called “Simba”, the African word for “Lion”.

In the early 2000s, a large portion of Uganda changed. Schools allowed children to run in races. Some even started to enter the World Championship Olympic finals.

Dorcus Inzikuru won the 3k Steeplechase Olympic event in 2005. He proved that runners, despite coming from a place that was slow to develop, could still perform well in the Olympics. In 2012, one of Uganda’s representative athletes, named Stephen Kiprotich, won the first distance track gold medal for the country.

Uganda’s talent and ability to perform well in athletic events proves that, despite their slower modernization timeline, they are still able to top other countries.