Samia Yusuf Omar of Somalia reacts after a heat of the women's 200-meter during the athletics competitions in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games- Dienstag 19. August 2008. (Photo from AP)

On August 19, 2008, when the teenage sprinter Samia Yusuf Omar of Somalia crossed the finish line in the women's 200m first-round heat 5 with a time of 32.16 seconds, nearly 9 seconds off the pace in the early heats at the Beijing Olympic Games, the first thing that came into her mind was whether her mother and six siblings in Mogadishu could find a neighbor with a television so they could watch her.

She would have loved her father to see her too, but he was killed in 2006 by a rocket attack that hit their two-room home in the relentless fighting that has torn Somalia apart for some two decades. An uncle and aunt are also dead.

Being in the Olympics, with spectacular stadiums and high-tech synthetic running tracks, is like stepping into another world for athletes from war-torn nations like Somalia.

"Sport pushes me forward," said Omar, 17, whose baggy blue tracksuit looks three sizes too big for her spindly frame as she fidgets in a chair in the Olympic Village in Beijing.

"Some people ask how I can be doing sport when so many people are being killed or dying from famine and drought, but being in the Olympics is doing something for my country because everyone will support me regardless of their tribal affiliation."

"You can't complain or blame anyone else for our problems, but it's different to being in a stable country. Sometimes I would like to be somewhere else so I could have proper training."

Omar gets up before dawn to pack in three hours of running before helping prepare her younger brothers and sisters for school then going with her widowed mother to tend a fruit stall near their home in Mogadishu.

But she fears for her life each time she goes to and from the crumbling Italian-built stadium, where she and the one other athlete representing Somalia in Beijing come to train.

"I don't understand politics," Omar said. "I just want peace for my country so that I can train and win medals, and achieve my dream of becoming a proper athlete."

Profile of Samia Yusuf Omar

Date of Birth: Mar. 25, 1991

Height (cm/ft in): 162cm / 5'4"

Weight (kg/lbs): 54 kg / 119 lbs

Sport: Athletics

Event: Women's 200m

(Compiled from Reuters, CCTV and BOCOG)