Six months ago Pamela Jelimo was barely known in her Kenyan village, but after winning the 800m at the Beijing Olympics she is a million-dollar star.
Under a blazing Rift Valley sun, thousands of well-behaved but exuberant villagers, fans and the curious packed her western Kenyan town of Eldoret to welcome their girl, accompanied by her mother, Rodah Jeptoo Keter.
Amid the pounding and chanting, closely monitored by armed police, mother and daughter disembarked from a police helicopter in the small farming town.
At her hometown of Kabsabet she officially unveiled an old dusty road that is now dedicated to her — Pamela Jelimo Road — a rare gesture usually reserved for politicians.
“If you work hard and are determined, nothing can stop you,” she told the crowd at the climax of a jamboree that started in the capital Nairobi on Tuesday night.
Jelimo, two months shy of her 19th birthday, has decisively won all her races since exploding into the limelight in May when she switched from 400m.
Since then, she has not looked back.
The country’s first woman 800m Olympic gold medalist has also lowered the World junior record twice, the African record three times and ended her first season with a US$1 million Golden League jackpot.
The affable teenager, who rose from obscurity, is now the talk of the town — marriage wishes abound, with fans carrying “Marry Me Jelimo” placards.
On Tuesday, journalists shoved each other to get a shot of the star, who has earned nearly 100 million shillings (US$1.374 million) over the last two months, when she arrived from Europe.
Even politicians stood up to be counted.
“Pamela Jelimo stands out as a heroine in this country,” Kenyan Agriculture Minister William Ruto said. “We have come here to celebrate victory that is not just hers, but for the whole country. She has demonstrated that despite her humble background, she can make it.”
At a rare reception on Wednesday, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga rewarded her with a 2.5 million shillings cash bonus and life insurance.
But the soft-spoken, shy police constable said she never plotted to win as such, until the opportunities came calling.
“I just aimed to run to the best of my ability. But when the opportunity offered itself, I grabbed it with both hands. I feel very blessed,” Jelimo said of her exploits in Beijing and Europe.
Jelimo clocked a personal best time of 1 minute, 54.01 seconds at the Zurich Grand Prix on Aug. 28 — a sharp rise for an athlete who could only manage 2 minutes, 12 seconds when she first stepped up to the two-lap race after starting out as a 400m runner.
She plans to attempt and break the 25-year-old world record of 1 minute, 53.28 seconds held by the Czech Republic’s Jarmilla Kratochvilova when she returns to the track in the new year.
In June, Jelimo said that she wanted to reward her mother, who couldn’t make it big in athletics in the early 1970s, by striking gold in Beijing.
And so she did.
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