It's important that we as a nation carry on the dream and legacy of the late Keitani Graham from Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia. His hope as the first FSM citizen to wrestle in the London Olympics was to lay the foundation for coaching future Olympic medalists and global ambassadors of the FSM. He inspired us with his passion for helping the young people of Chuuk and our nation through his work as youth advocate, Olympic athlete, leader of a nonprofit organization for historic preservation and self-empowerment through sports. We must build the multi-sports complex by the grassy Anderson Field where Keitani spent so much of his life to form healthy minds in healthy bodies.

Keitani packed so much into his short life. He was a youth leader, sports advocate, social entrepreneur, community organizer, educator. Kei began his athletic competition as a young student at Xavier High School in Chuuk. He went on to become a member of the track team at College of the Holy Cross. An injury altered the course of his life towards wrestling. With the same zeal, enthusiasm, hard work, and positive attitude that was his trademark, Keitani learned to wrestle and competed his way through the FSM, Oceania, globally until he qualified to represent the FSM in the London Olympics in 2012.

But sports was only the means to his deeper passion; i.e. to form the young Chuukese youth to believe in their abilities and be proud of their roots. He lived that passion to the core in his life and through his nonprofit organization Society of Historic Preservation / Helping Ourselves: Outreach Programs in Sports (SHIP/HOOPS) and Akoyikoyi School that he helped to start in his village of Penia.

Today we mourn with the Graham family (Clark, Chineina, Keitani, Kimberly, Curtis, Dubo & Caden) and their loved ones with the loss of a beloved family member. Tomorrow we must thank them for the gift of their son, brother, uncle Keitani…our friend, our hero, our teammate, our coach, our role model, our advocate, our student, our teacher, and our champion. Building a multi-sports complex in Chuuk is the right thing that our leaders can do to help us honor the legacy of this young national hero.

We love you, Kei, and miss you so much.