MARYLEELA RAO
One of the most pleasant and enduring bonds that links the U.S. to other countries is the fellowship of athletics. Many years ago M. K. Rao, an engineering student from India, attended the University of Kansas and ran on the track team. Rao took his U.S.-acquired skills back to India, and when his young daughter Maryleela asked him to show her how to run he pitched in with such enthusiasm that Maryleela became one of Asia's outstanding woman sprinters and hurdlers and was India's lone 1956 woman Olympian. Like her father before her, Maryleela came to the U.S. to finish her education—at California's San Jose State College.
To do justice to this bright new world, Maryleela gets up at 5:30 a.m., studies the maximum allowable number of courses, has taken up golf in addition to track and fallen in love with San Francisco. When Maryleela returns to India she hopes to get a job "raising the standard of physical education." She believes that "through the mental, physical and emotional strain of competitive sports you can get to know yourself really well."
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FRED E. CHEZ