Pierre Lisk

Lisk's best time in the 100 meters during his Kansas freshman year was 10.25, which made him KU's best sprinter and one of the top 20 collegiate sprinters in the United States, said assistant coach Doug Hedrick.

"When he left Prempeh College in 1992, he was listed among the Top 50 to 75 best sprinters in the world," Coach Hedrick said. But against "the guys I've been worshipping all my life, like Carl Lewis and Frankie Fredericks," more speed will be necessary, Lisk said.

"You see these guys on TV winning their heats, running hard at the start and slowing down and jogging through the finish line. You look at the time and it's 10.1, and you think, `Wow. What if he'd run through the line?'" Lisk said. "Making it to the finals, that's a morning stroll for them. They don't even hustle."

Lisk, who graduated in 1997 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering made it to the Atlanta finals and competed against his idols. He ran the 100 meters and the 4x100 meters and the 200 meters. He did beat all his country's great sprinters at the Sierra Leone's pre-Olympics camp. Going into the Olympics he said: "races like the 100 meters are crowded with athletes, sometimes two to three from a country, and they compete in heats for slots in the final race. "It's going to be very tough," Lisk said. "If I can run a personal best, I'll be happy."

But he did a supremely splendid job! All the "big guys" will be looking out for him on the tracks in Sidney in 2000. He has surprised many people in the track meetings following the Atlanta Olympics. He has kept the Sierra leonean flag flying high in the World Championship of Athletics. People now know Namibia's Frankie Fredericks is not the only threat from the African continent. They just never thought a white African could be a contender. Known around the Ashanti State as Oyibo National (Oyibo, meaning white person; and National, emphasizing his status as a national athlete), he broke Records in all the sprints and long jump.

He became the first Kansas Jayhawk Olympian since 1976 when he ran in the 200 meters and the 4x100m relay for Sierra Leone at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

He also posted Sierra Leone national record times of 20.86 in the 200 and 39.81 in the 4x100m relay and qualified for the finals of the 200m and 4x100m in 1998 and 1999 World Championships.

During his first running season at KU, he notched a season-best time in the the 55m with a 6.32 during the Big Eight Conference indoor prelims...won the 55m at the KSU-Coors, Kansas and KU-KSU-MU Invitationals with times of 6.33, 6.33 and 6.34, respectively. In the following year (1996 season) he was the Jayhawks' top indoor sprinter for the second straight year...broke the Kansas school record in the 55m during the preliminaries of the NCAA Championships (6.22). He also had the top time in the 55m during the preliminaries at the conference meet (6.25) and won the Jayhawk Invitational (6.29). During the outdoor season the same year, he was the conference champion in the 100 meters (10.46)...Ran his top time of the season in the 100 in the Big Eight preliminaries (10.25)...placed third in the 200 at the Big Eight Championships with a 20.89 in the preliminaries and a wind-aided 20.85 in the final. Just before the Olympics he was on the first-place 4x100 relay at the Alabama Relays (40.51); was on the anchor leg of KU's winning 4x100 relay team at the Kansas Relays (41.00) and was named to the Academic all-Big Eight Honor Roll.

Lisk credits his speed to one crucial element of his childhood: the lack of a bicycle.

"I grew up in a little town called Freetown. Most of the kids there had bikes, and I didn't," Lisk said. "I think that's how it started - because I had to race behind those guys. They wouldn't let me ride their bikes." He laughed. "They were mean."

As a high school student, Lisk began running track. But his father, an engineer, and his mother, a nurse, insisted he focus on academics. "If we had a meet in another town, and I told my father I needed to go, he would say, `Nah, you've got to study for your tests.' Most of the time, I didn't get to travel," Lisk said. "I just competed at home."

His mother has seen him compete once; his father never.

At Prempeh College, Lisk decided to study engineering in the United States because a U.S. degree is more marketable than one from a Sierra Leone university. He sent applications to about 20 U.S. universities and contacted relatives in the States. KU was the first university to reply, and it came highly recommended by one of Lisk's cousins, a KU student.

"I came here primarily to study, but I knew I wanted to run track, so I was saying to myself, `I might give it a shot. I'll just go talk to the coach and give him my times,'" Lisk said. "He was like, `OK, let's see you work out with the team and see if you can handle the pressure."

Lisk could. Now a scholarship athlete, he's a rarity in collegiate track and field, coach Schwartz said. Few international students ever walk on to track teams, and "very, very, very few people have the talent he does," the coach said.

Being a KU sprinter has meant the kind of travel Lisk was denied as a high school star. "My father tries to call me every weekend, but I'm never home," he said, laughing. "He'll say, `Where were you last weekend?' and I'll say, `I had to run in Oklahoma.'

"`Where were you this weekend?'

"`I had to run in Texas.'

"Then he's like, `Man, are you studying?'"

The answer is yes. Lisk earned a 3.04 GPA in the spring and was named to the first team Big 8 academic honor roll.

When he learned he'd met Sierra Leone's qualifications for the Olympics, Lisk tried not to think much about it. As the spring semester ended, he was still working hard at training and at ignoring thoughts of the Olympic Games. "If I think about it, I won't eat or sleep or relax," he said. "I'll be tense all the time."

When he allows himself to daydream, he imagines seeing his heroes, Lewis of the United States and Fredericks of Namibia, and perhaps running in a heat against them. And he thinks about wearing the green, white, and blue colors of Sierra Leone.

His coaches think about it, too. KU has not sent an athlete to the Olympics since 1976. "It's definitely the pinnacle of your career," coach Schwartz said. "It's one of those rare things in athletics. There can be no greater honor than to wear your country's uniform in the Olympic Games."