Belizean Seeks Gold in Olympic Marathon

A few months ago, Polin Belisle sent a letter to his native country of Belize--a sliver of land east of Guatemala with some 168,000 inhabitants. The letter, which contained a resume and a document authenticating his fourth-place finish in this year’s Long Beach Marathon, was the Belize equivalent of the Olympic Trials.

Weeks went by. Belisle, a wispy 22-year-old who moved to Los Angeles when he was 9, got nervous. “My dream has always been to run in the Olympics,” he says. Then, in August, a letter finally arrived at the North Hollywood apartment he shares with his wife and mother. The letter made him happy enough “to want to jump up and touch the sky.”

Hand-written by the secretary of the Belize Olympic Assn., who had scratched out the name of his predecessor on the masthead, the letter informed Belisle that he had “been elected” to the eight-member Belizean team. It also emphasized that “your sponsor will be responsible for your expenses. Please remit three thousand U.S. dollars by Aug. 15.”

It was signed, “Yours in sports, David Funseca.”

“Belize is not a wealthly country like America,” Belisle says.

Fortunately, the enterprising Belisle knew he had the money before sending in his application. He had enlisted the sponsorship of Darryl Murphy, director of financial aid at United Business College in Los Angeles, and Sylvester Nicholson, a Belizean who is placement director at Webster Career College, also in L.A.

“I’m his countryman and I wanted to do my duty by helping him,” Nicholson says.

But Belisle, 5-5, 115, won’t be content to merely march into Seoul wearing Belizean national colors and enjoy the Olympic experience. His plans are as big as his dreams.

“I want to win the gold,” he says.

It is not rare for an athlete from a tiny nation to have a shot at a medal--the favorite in this year’s marathon is Ahmed Salah, who hails from Djibouti in eastern Africa. But Salah has run the marathon in the near-world-record time of 2:07:07. Belisle’s best is 2:20, which he ran this year in the L. A. Marathon.

Belisle was not eligible to try out for the U. S. team--and it is doubtful he would have qualified--because he does not have dual citizenship. Although he has lived in the Los Angeles area for 13 years and graduated from Burbank High, he is still a citizen of Belize, his green card allowing him to live and work in this country.

“In the future, I might become a U. S. citizen,” he says. “Right now my mind is half and half.”

Belisle speaks English well but haltingly. He learned it as a child in Belize, where the economy depends heavily on American tourists. He was living in Belize City when his mother divorced his father and moved to L. A. in 1970. Growing up poor, he derived enjoyment from running. In the mornings, he and his brother would run five or six miles before breakfast.

“Even as a kid I really loved to run,” Belisle says.

In 1975, his mother, Inez Ake, saved enough money working as a housekeeper in Beverly Hills and Palm Springs to send for Polin. “I was excited to come here because I love my mom so much,” he says. After living with his sister in Cerritos for a few years, he moved to Burbank in 1980. As a member of the school’s cross-country team, he says, he won the Foothill League championship his senior year.

Belisle decided to get serious about distance running when he went to Valley College. “I started to do marathons and train for them and get more intelligent about my body and my food,” he says. To train for the Olympics, Belisle drinks carrot juice and runs 250 miles a week in the hills above Griffith Park and Sylmar.

“High altitude is part of the secret” of being a good marathoner, he says.

Five years ago, Belisle stopped running long enough to make the acquaintance of a young girl. He was visiting Belize--about the time the country gained its independence and changed its name from British Honduras--and went to a party. Three years later, after a long-distance courtship, he and Mary Ann were married in a Burbank chapel. With little money coming in--she can’t work without a green card--Mary Ann will be no closer to the Olympics than her TV. But Inez is going to Seoul, paying her own way.

“It will lift my spirits to have my mother there cheering for me,” Belisle says.

The only thing that scares him is the political climate in South Korea. He has seen videotape of the rioting students and the riot police. While other athletes can work out in sheltered Olympic venues, marathoners have to practice on a course that snakes through the streets of Seoul.

“That gets me nervous,” says Belisle, who leaves for Seoul next week. “If people are out there fighting and shooting, how can I train?”