Is America ready to love this man?

Khalid Khannouchi had dreamed about this moment for a long time.\nWhen the Moroccan national track federation refused to pick up the marathoner's basic training expenses, he dreamed.\nWhen he washed dishes in a dumpy restaurant in Brooklyn, N.Y., he dreamed.\nLast Sunday, his dreams came true. By winning the London Marathon in world record time, Khannouchi established himself as the world's premier long-distance runner.\nKhannouchi, 30, left Morocco for the 'Land of Opportunity' nine years ago. Clearly, he didn't leave because he wanted to become famous. Most American track and field stars cannot get arrested. (Of course, if model/high jumper Amy Acuff ever walked down the street wearing the outfit she wore in the 2000 charity Millennium of Champions Calendar, she might be.) Meanwhile, Morocco has treated its national track stars Said Aouita and Hicham El Guerrouj like gods.\nAthough for some reason, the Moroccan government didn't give the late-blooming Khannouchi the financial support he deserved. He moved to the U.S. and lived an unassuming lifestyle. He met his wife/coach/agent Sandra, herself a former long-distance runner, at a 5k race in 1996.\nHe tried his first marathon in 1997. He won it. It was the Chicago Marathon, and the reason why you didn't hear that much about it was because Michael Jordan was picking his nose that day. Or something like that.\n1997 was the beginning of Khannouchi's Chicago Marathon four-peat, and his third straight win in 1999 got the marathon world's attention. His time of two hours, five minutes and 42 seconds smashed the world record by nearly a half-minute.\nAt this point, Khannouchi had submitted his green card application. He wanted to run for the U.S. in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. His lawyers put pressure on governmental officials in New York to speed up the green card process. Was he asking for special treatment? Yes and no. After all, the Olympics happen only once every four years. On the other hand, he had waited over three years, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service caseworker who had interviewed Khannouchi was charged with bribery in an unrelated case, causing a delay in processing of all the caseworker's applicants' paperwork.\nThe pressure was intense on everybody. Khannouchi hurt his hamstring, groin and ankle. The government dawdled. USA Track and Field, the sport's national governing body, hoped that Khannouchi could revive American marathoning, which was losing popularity like Vanilla Ice.\nKhannouchi made the toughest decision of his career. He ran the 2000 London Marathon instead of the Pittsburgh Marathon, which was also serving as the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon. The races occurred only a couple of weeks apart, and Khannouchi didn't want to miss out on London if he couldn't get his American green card. (He eventually got his green card less than a week before the Pittsburgh race.) He could have run for Morocco in the Games based on Morocco's dual-citizenship laws and its nebulous Olympic qualifying process, but he declined on principle.\n Many in the American sports media ripped into Khannouchi even though the only thing many of them knew about marathoning was that it blocked downtown Sunday traffic. Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune called Khannouchi "another greedy athlete" for choosing London and the $175,000 appearance fee instead of waiting to run in Pittsburgh, as if Khannouchi had rigged the green card process.\nAfter having gone through the green card controversy, Khannouchi found the obstacles at the London Marathon nine days ago manageable despite its formidability. Flanked by Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie and Kenya's Paul Tergat, two of Khannouchi's idols and two of the greatest 10,000m runners ever and running on a cobblestone-strewn course not known for permitting fast times, Khannouchi separated from the pack about a mile from the finish and beat Tergat by ten seconds. Tergat's time was the third fastest ever, and Gebrselassie's time was an Ethiopian record.\nTo put Khannouchi's world record clocking in perspective, his time of 2:05:38 averages out to about 4:48 per mile over 26.2 miles. Can you run that fast over one mile? Can you run one mile? I know I can't.\nIs America ready to root for a genteel, world-class Muslim athlete during these times now that he is one of us? That's his dream.