PARAMARIBO, Suriname, April 30 - Siegfried Esajas, Suriname’s first Olympian athlete, died today just a fortnight after his country’s Olympic committee set the record straight on a misunderstanding that ruined his career and haunted his life.
Esajas, who was 70, died of a terminal illness at a hospital in the capital, Paramaribo, said Will Axwijk, a sports historian and friend of the family. He declined to disclose the illness.
Esajas was 25 when he became the first athlete from the South American country to qualify for the Olympics, the 1960 games in Rome, when Suriname still was a Dutch colony.
But he failed to show up for his 800-meter qualifying race, and reports quickly circulated that he had overslept. Esajas became the butt of jokes until the Suriname Olympic Committee publicly set the record straight two weeks ago.
As it turns out, the secretary-general of the Suriname committee at the time, Fred Glans, mistakenly told Esajas that his morning race had been rescheduled for the afternoon.
Suriname’s Olympic Committee found Glans’ account in its records after learning that Esajas was terminally ill and deciding to take a fresh look into the matter.
The committee presented Esajas with a plaque honoring him for being Suriname’s first Olympian and a letter of apology.
Werner Esajas, the Olympian’s son, said the belated apology brought his father solace after years of bitterness.
His eyes and face lit up, and he was happy,'' the younger Esajas said in an interview this week. I think it was enough for him to finally have peace.’’
In the last year during his illness he cried about what had happened in Rome every time I went to see him,'' he added. I think it tore him up inside.’’
Olympic Committee president Gerard van Dijk could not explain why the committee had not set the record straight when Glans first recorded the real story.
That thing about Esajas oversleeping in Rome was always a funny anecdote to me. I did not know better. It was before my time,'' Van Dijk said. Glans declined to discuss the incident. In 1960, Esajas was the Dutch champion in the 800 meters with a personal best time of 1 minute 50.9 seconds. We did not think Esajas would win gold, but he had a good chance of making the finals, and who knows what could have happened?’’ said Axwijk.
Esajas’ first coach, Hugo Wiersma, said he never believed the runner had overslept. Wiersma was in Rome to watch his former trainee compete and was the first to tell him he had missed his heat.
I found Esajas ... in a relaxed position concentrating for his heat, which he thought was a few hours away,'' said Wiersma, 80. I was the first one to talk to him and he was devastated.’’
Esajas gave up running, earned a horticulture degree and became a fruit grower.
Werner Esajas said his father always was afraid of talking to strangers.
He could not have conversations with people without them making jokes about him oversleeping in Rome,'' he said. It would make him angry and he started avoiding people altogether.’’
For years it continued, with the announcer at the opening ceremony of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, introducing the Suriname delegation as the country that slept through its first Olympics,'' said Axwijk. In its 1972 encyclopedia, the International Olympic Committee wrote that Esajas overslept and missed the start of his heat.’’
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said Surinamese Olympic officials would have to file an official request for the international body to change its own records.
The events in Rome caused a wound in my father's soul that never healed,'' the younger Esajas said. He felt he was robbed of what could have been the greatest moment of his life.’’
Esajas is survived by five children. His wife, Lygia Esajas Anijs, died in January. No funeral plans have been announced.