9 Chapter 8 After Boxing

Chapter 8 After Boxing In 1986, Ali's marriage to Veronica ended. He had met an old friend from Louisville named Lonnie Williams. They married in 1986, and she became a great help to him in his life after boxing. In 1991, they adopted a son, Asaad, who grew up to be a college baseball star. In all, Ali has nine children.

Family was very important to Ali. Lonnie's mother had been one of Odessa Clay's best friends, and Ali remained very close to his mother until her death in 1994. Cassius Clay Sr. had died in 1990, long after leaving the family. He and his son had spoken occasionally, but Ali was never as close to his father as he was to Odessa. Because of his illness, talking and moving became harder and harder, but Ali's charm continued to make him a great communicator. He traveled the world in the 1990s, sharing a message of peace and trying to help poor and hungry people. His fame allowed him to travel to

countries where Americans are not usually welcome. In 1990, he went to Iraq and arranged for fifteen American hostages to be released. They had been held by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in an effort to prevent the United States from attacking his country. Ali also took medical supplies to Cuba when that country faced a crisis. When the black South African leader Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, Ali met him soon after.

One of the greatest moments in Ali's life after boxing came in 1996, when he was chosen to light the torch to open the Summer Olympics in

Atlanta. The selection of Ali was a well-kept secret. Only a handful of people knew about it before the magic moment when the Champ once again stepped in front of the world. Millions watched as he held the torch steady with his right hand, while his left hand trembled and his face remained a mask. It was an amazing moment in modern Olympic history. The United Nations named Ali a Messenger of Peace in 1998. That same year, The Ring magazine named him the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, as the twentieth century ended, many media groups looked back on the

previous one hundred years. Sports Illustrated, ESPN, the Associated Press, and the BBC all named Muhammad Ali as one of the greatest athletes of the twentieth century. In 2001, Islamic terrorists commandeered passenger planes and attacked the United States on September 11. Many people blamed all of Islam for the attacks. Ali spoke out for his faith and against the terrorists. "Islam is not a killer religion," he said after visiting the site of the attacks on New York City. "Islam means peace." He said that he believed the people who had committed those crimes did not follow Islam. November 2005 was a big month for Ali and his family. First, President George W. Bush awarded Ali the Presidential Medal of Freedom. That is the highest honor the United States can give to a person who is not in the military. The award showed how much things had changed. Almost forty years earlier, the government had arrested Ali. Now it was honoring him.