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NAIROBI, April 3-- Marathoner Aliphine Tuliamuk hopes the world will move past the COVID-19 pandemic and see sports flourish as before. Kenyan-turned-American Tuliamuk, who will be leading the U.S. marathon team to the Tokyo Olympics, said the difficulties she endured in Kenya's Rift Valley, where she was a budding athlete over 20 years ago, has made her resilient and she believes she will overcome the challenges brought about by the pandemic. "I think what I really want is for the world to heal so that all of us can pursue, and hopefully achieve, any of our individual and collective goals in life," Tuliamuk said on Friday. At the turn of the millennium, the future 2020 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials champion was just another promising young runner in the Rift Valley province of her native Kenya. Only 11 years old, she was selected to compete in the Rift Valley's regional meeting in the 10,000m after outracing older girls in the arduous event. On their way to the competition, her coach - Geoffrey Ptormos, a distant relative of Tuliamuk's - arranged for Tegla Loroupe to come to meet the team. The local Kapenguria legend was training for the 2000 Olympic Games as the favorite for the marathon and the 5,000m, and by then had captured two New York City Marathon titles, three World Championship half marathon titles, and was the world record holder in the marathon twice over, with her best effort of 2:20:43 standing until September 2001. | 
