Children of the World: Kemboi, the Young Barefoot Marathoner (2009)

Kemboi, a 15-year-old boy in Kenya, loves to run. He dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal in the marathon. In Kenya, marathoners are national heroes. Ever since Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila surprised the world in the 1960 Olympic marathon by winning the gold while running barefoot, African runners – and especially Kenyans – have dominated long-distance running. In this episode, we meet a couple of famous Kenyan Olympic gold medalists. We follow Kemboi in school, in his poor farming village, doing chores at home, and training.