think on this.

Guor Marial ran for his life to escape a Sudanese child labor camp. Now he will get to run at the Olympics. Marial’s heartwarming rise from a fearful kid who hid in a cave, fled his war-torn homeland and finally arrived in the United States as a refugee took another incredible turn Saturday. Despite having no passport and officially no country — and at one time very little hope — the 28-year-old marathoner was cleared by the IOC to compete at the London Games under the Olympic flag.

“The voice of South Sudan has been heard,” Marial told The Associated Press from his home in Flagtaff, Ariz. “The South Sudan has finally got a spot in the world community. Even though I will not carry their flag in this Olympic Games, the country itself is there. “The dream has come true. The hope of South Sudan is alive.” Marial — who was born in what is now South Sudan, a newly independent African country that doesn’t yet have a national Olympic body — was one of four competitors let in at the London Games as independent athletes. Three others from Netherlands Antilles also were allowed to take part under the Olympic flag, but the case of Marial was the first of its kind at the Olympics, IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.