This is a Tarahumara young woman, identified as Maria Salomé (identified as, meaning not her indigenous name, but the name that officials preferred to label/identify her as, with intention to further confuse/misplace people), ran in ‘K10 Marathon 2012’, and won by far!
With no running shoes but sandals, no fancy sport clothing but a dress, with her hair loose… She proudly represented her indigenous people, the Tarahumara people of Chihuahua, and every indigenous woman of Mexico.
History of Tarahumaras in Olympics:
The Tarahumaras live in the southwestern part of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico. They shy away from contact with the outside world and remain for the most part isolated there to avoid further assimilation & colonialism. However, they are legendary long distance runners and have been doing this for centuries.
“Civilization” all but ignored them, partly because of their location and also because that is how they like it. They have few “modern” conveniences and usually travel barefoot for hours between villages, often kicking a ball along the way. In fact, their endurance in running barefoot for hours at a time is legendary throughout Mexico.
In 1928, the Mexican Olympic Committee decided to enter 2 Tarahumaras in the marathon race, the grueling race of over 26 miles which is the signature ending of the modern Olympics. Over the years, the best marathoners are those with extraordinary stamina who can sustain the required fast pace for over two hours. It seemed like a match made in heaven for the Mexican Committee. 2 Tarahumaras were sent to Amsterdam for the 1928 Olympics. On the final day the two took off with the rest of the runners while their Mexican trainers crossed their fingers in anticipation.
But things didn’t exactly turn out the way the trainers had hoped. It seems that they forgot to tell the Tarahumaras that the race was only 42 kilometers long. When they finally appeared in the stadium and crossed the finish line they kept on running not realizing that the race was over. When the officials finally caught up with them to stop running, they pleaded, “too short, too short,” Alas, rules are rules and the officials could do very little for them.
You see, the Tarahumaras are quite unique in many ways. They’ve had little contact with the so-called “modern-civilization” over the centuries, and their main method of transportation has stayed the same throughout their existence. To get anywhere they run. Not only do they run, they most often run barefoot. In fact, they run barefoot for up to 24 or 36 hours nonstop, covering distances of up to 300 kilometers, all the while kicking a little ball in front of them. But the truly amazing thing about this tribe is that they can accomplish all this at altitudes of 2,000 meters or more.
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