Wanjiru On Obama: “I want to be like him”

After Sammy Wanjiru woke up in the United States for the first time Friday morning, he turned on the television and saw that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, that a spacecraft had landed on the moon and that the forecast for Sunday’s Chicago Marathon called for clouds and temperatures in the low 40s.

Wanjiru, 23, the reigning Olympic marathon champion from Kenya, said he could not help cheering, especially at the first bit of news. He grinned when speaking of Mr. Obama, whose father was Kenyan and who has become something of an adopted son there.

“I want to be like him,” Wanjiru said.

Wanjiru may never win a Nobel Prize, he said, laughing, but he does have a gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Games. That was a cherished prize in Kenya — the nation’s first gold in an event it has dominated in major races for two decades.

Before Wanjiru makes the 26.2-mile trek here, on the fastest official United States marathon course, he plans to make a pilgrimage to the Obama residence in Hyde Park.