BEIJING -- Hours before he led the United States delegation with flag in hand at the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony last night, runner Lopez Lomong sat and told his story.

Although the entrant in the men's 1,500 meters is a member of Team Darfur, a group of athletes who work to raise awareness about alleged genocide there, Lomong's words were not about politics or China's policy regarding Sudan and its Darfur region.

They didn't have to be.

Lomong's life journey speaks as loudly as any protest. Maybe louder.

One of the Lost Boys of Sudan, Lomong lived while some around him died. He escaped what could have been a life of forced military service. In the United States, he found hope, a place where he didn't have to do without, and a channel for his running.

"I'm so happy and so proud," said Lomong, who was chosen by his fellow U.S. sports captains to be the nation's flag bearer.

When he lines up for the 1,500 heats Friday, Lomong will take part in his first international race -- something he couldn't have imagined as a happy young boy in a Sudanese village.

Until he was 6, Lomong was sheltered by his parents. He didn't know about the Second Sudanese Civil War, which pitted Muslim-dominated northern Sudan against the more diverse south. He played and enjoyed childhood.

Then one Sunday, soldiers invaded their open-air church and stole the children. Lomong and others were blindfolded and taken to a prison camp, where they were put through training for the military under horrifying conditions.

Water was limited, and Lomong said the soldiers put sand in the boys' grain, causing fatal digestive problems for many.

"Some of my friends, who I call my angels now, were a little smarter than their age," said Lomong, who heeded their advice to eat very slowly.

"There were a lot of kids who were just sitting there and all of a sudden would go to sleep and never stand up again," he said. "It's one of those things where you say, 'Well, it's his day today, but probably tomorrow it will be my day.' It became a part of life."

Those who withstood the food were sent on long runs around the barracks' perimeter. Lomong and some of his older friends spotted a hole in the wall, and one night four of them slipped through a door and crawled past the soldiers to escape through that hole.

"That's where my race started," said Lomong, who bears scars on his legs from three days of running.

They hid in caves, dug for water and used leaves as drinking vessels, the older three boys watching over the 6-year-old. Eventually, they reached the Kenyan border and were sent to a large refugee camp in that country.

Assuming his parents were dead, Lomong lived there 10 years. Food had to be rationed, so the boys ate one meal a day late at night. At Christmas and Easter, 10 would share a chicken cut into small pieces and boiled in salted water. It was more broth than anything.

"If you got a little piece of chicken, Merry Christmas to you," Lomong said.

In 2000, he earned five shillings but listened to people who advised him not to spend it on food but instead to go watch something called the Olympics. He walked five miles and handed over his pittance to watch the only television in the region, a black-and-white set.

He was mesmerized by American sprinter Michael Johnson, who won the 200 gold medal in Sydney.

"It's so great to see someone running and a lot of people are watching and they are cheering," Lomong said. "For us, that was our transportation."

He wanted to be like that Mike.

"That's what inspired me," Lomong said. "From that point on, I would say I want to run as fast as those guys and I want to run for that country. I want to wear that jersey."

A year later, he submitted an essay in rough English and was selected as one of 3,500 Lost Boys of Sudan, a rescue program operated by numerous charities. His first plane trip was to the United States, where, at age 16, he was adopted by Robert and Barbara Rogers and settled in rural upstate New York.

His first stop in America was a McDonald's, where he got chicken. Thinking of those holiday soups, Lomong couldn't throw away his leftovers as his new parents suggested. He finished them the next day.

There was a lot of culture shock.

"The cars and the clothes were so different, the house," said Lomong, who even had to be taught to adjust the water temperature so he could take a shower. "It was like learning everything like a kid again."

The Rogerses helped Lomong pursue running, eventually at Northern Arizona University. He earned his U.S. citizenship July 6, 2007, and qualified for the Beijing Games July 6, 2008, by finishing third at the Olympic trials.

Eventually, he learned that his biological parents and older brother -- who was not in church during the raid -- survived. He has visited them a couple times. They had held a funeral for him, burying beads and things from his childhood. On a visit in December, the family dug those things up.

"Now I am alive again," Lomong said.