Samyr Laine

Mr. Y and I were watching the Olympics tonight and heard the amazing story of Samyr Laine.  He was born in New York to Haitian parents, and competes for Haiti in the Olympics in the triple jump.

Samyr went to Harvard as an undergraduate, and was the freshman year roommate of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook.  In this Bloomberg article, he talked about playing a lot of video games with Zuckerberg and both of them not sleeping much.  He was also the fourteenth person to sign up for Facebook when he and Zuckerberg were sophomores, and as he mentioned in the Los Angeles Times article, he is still friends with Zuckerberg and talks to him every couple of months.

After graduating from Harvard, Samyr got a master's degree in kinesiology and sports management from University of Texas while training.  Then he went to Georgetown and got a law degree, and was a summer associate at a prestigious law firm, Shearman & Sterling.  He studied and passed the bar exam while training for the London Olympics, and he also started a foundation, Jump for Haiti, to help the poorly-funded athletics community in Haiti.  It was only in the past 18 months that he was able to concentrate solely on training.  Samry mentioned in a BBC Sports article, "I am a US citizen but when it comes to competing or representing Haiti I feel I am an ambassador on an international level. I wear my red and blue on my sleeve and the country is near and dear to me."

Although Samyr didn't medal in the triple jump, his is still a great story for so many reasons.  Let's hope he can continue to inspire and raise money for Haiti.