( CNN ) -- From escaping bullets in Sudan as a young boy to becoming a track and field Olympics star , U.S. athlete Lopez Lomong has been running and defying odds nearly all of his life . Lomong , who carried the American flag into the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing , was among the thousands of refugees known as `` The Lost Boys , '' victims of Sudan 's long and brutal civil war . At the age of six , Lomong , who qualified Wednesday for the 5,000-meter final at the London Games on August 11 , was separated from his family when he was kidnapped by soldiers during a Sunday morning mass in his native country . Lomong was taken along with several other children to a prison where they would be trained to become child soldiers . `` I saw kids dying every day and I would say , 'OK , maybe next time it 's going to be me , ' '' remembers Lomong , 27 . `` That basically changed my life and from that moment I 'm no longer six years old -- I became an adult . '' But a few weeks later Lomong managed to escape from the prison camp with the help of three older abducted children . Barefoot but determined , Lomong and his friends went a through a hole in the prison fence and started running as fast as they could , in what Lomong describes as their `` race to freedom . '' After running for three days and nights the boys finally reached Kenya , where Lomong spent the next 10 years of his life in a refugee camp . In 2001 , Lomong 's remarkable life journey took another turn . Aged 16 , he was among the nearly 4,000 `` Lost Boys '' who were resettled in various cities across the United States as part of a U.N. and U.S. government program . Read more : Former 'Lost Boy ' runs boot camps for business . He was adopted by a family in Tully , a small town in upstate New York , where he went to high school and first started thinking of running as a career . He became a U.S. citizen in July 2007 and one year later he made the national Olympics team , taking part in the 1,500-meter race in Beijing . Lomong did n't make it to the finals but was honored by his fellow athletes who selected him as the as flag bearer for Team USA . `` That is the most incredible thing I take away from the Olympics , '' he says . `` It 's not only track and field . There are swimmers ; there are wrestlers ; there is everybody united and we are all walking together to bring as many medals to our country . Those are the things that I will never forget -- I was very excited to be part of that and carry America 's flag into the opening ceremony . '' This week , he returns to the Olympics for the second time . This time his goal is to achieve Olympic glory . `` I want to go back to do what I did n't do in 2008 , '' says Lomong , a graduate of Northern Arizona University . `` I want to win the medal . Yes , I was a flag bearer in 2008 ; I do n't want to be a flag bearer anymore , I want to bring the medal back home . '' See also : Nigeria 's first Olympic canoeist . Determined to win a medal for his adopted country , Lomong is also focused on making a difference in South Sudan . He has established a foundation in his name to help people in his native country , focusing on four pressing issues . `` We need to be able to go back and give these people education , clean water , nutrition , medicine , '' says Lomong , who also reunited with his family in South Sudan in 2007 . `` To live , to see another day , to think there is someone out there in the world caring for them so they can be able to pursue their dream . '' Lomong has also written a book , called `` Running for My Life : One Lost Boy 's Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games , '' where he narrates his long and epic life journey . See also : Sudan 's 'Lost Boys ' reunited with the past . He wants to share his inspiring story with the world so that people know where he comes from and understand why he is running . `` I want to be the one telling that story to the people who never had a voice before because there are a lot of kids out there right now that are still going through the things I went through . They are still getting kidnapped . They are still going hungry for days , they do n't have families , '' he says . `` We need to be able to tell the world to stop those things and let 's educate kids instead of giving them AK-47s to go to fight . Let the kids go and play [ and ] do anything they need to do to be able to see their future . '' London 2012 highlights : Catch up with what you missed . Olympics in pictures : The best photos from London 2012 .
Lopez Lomong is a former ` ` ' Boy '' from Sudan who now runs for Team USA . Lomong spent 10 years of his childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya . He was relocated in the United States as a teenager and became a U.S. citizen in 2007 . In 2008 he was chosen to carry the American flag at Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing .