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<p style="font-size: 18pt; font-weight:bold; font-family:arial, 'sans-serif';"><a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/comment/human-interest-saturdays-volume-2/">Human Interest Saturdays, Volume 2</a></p> <p style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight:normal; font-family:arial, 'sans-serif';">Posted April 5, 2008 at 02:00 PM by Michael J. Sedor</p> <p style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight:normal; font-family:arial, 'sans-serif'">The path towards Olympic glory is seldom an easy road. For some athletes the quest’s difficult nature is compounded by cultural norms, religious rules, and even personal psychological demons. This weeks Human Interest Saturday looks at articles tracing the journey of female athletes in Iran and Afghanistan, a tale of an Irish hurdler obsessed with her sport, and (to lighten up the post) a tale about a South Dakota scoreboard operator who just might make it to Beijing. The odds of 19-year-old 1500m runner Mahboba Ahdyar winning a medal at Beijing are long. But for this brave Afghani woman just reaching the Olympics will have been a monumental accomplishment. For starters: there are no running tracks in Afghanistan. Ahdyar trains on the dusty Kabul streets beginning her daily runs from her small mudbrick home. During her runs she…<a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/comment/human-interest-saturdays-volume-2/">(<a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/comment/human-interest-saturdays-volume-2/">Continued...</a>)<br clear="all" /><br> <p style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight:normal; font-family:arial, 'sans-serif'"><a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/comment/human-interest-saturdays-volume-2/">Read the full article...</a> | <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/comment/human-interest-saturdays-volume-2/">Comment on this post</a></p> <p style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight:normal; font-family:arial, 'sans-serif'">Filed under: <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/beijing-2008/">Beijing-2008</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/culture-history/">Culture/History</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/human-interest/">Human-Interest</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/socio-political-issues/">Socio-Political-Issues</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/events/">Events</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/track-field/">track-field</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/other/">Other</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/featured-writers/">Featured-Writers</a>, <a href="http://www.summerolympian.com/olympics/archive/category/michael-j-sedor/">Michael-J-Sedor</a><br /><br /> </P>