Last Tuesday, two Olympic competitors showed impressive sports(wo)manship during a 5,000-meter race in Rio. Nikki Hamblin and Abbey D’Agostino, female runners from New Zealand and the United States, respectively, each made sure that the other was able to cross the finish line after the two took tumbles on the track.
After Hamblin tripped during the race, D’Agostino fell over her, but was able to get up and make sure that Hamblin wasn’t left behind. Both women continued in the race until the leg injury D’Agostino sustained during the first collision resulted in her falling again. This time, Hamblin stopped her own running to see to it that her fellow competitor finished the race.
Um… we’re not crying… there just must be onions around here somewhere!
While neither runner finished in time to qualify their countries for the next round of competition, both teams contested their disqualification after the results were released and were able to advance to the 5,000-meter final race.
To make this tale even more emotional, the runners were both awarded by the International Olympic Committee for showing such compassion during their event. “For embodying the Olympic spirit,” Hamblin and D’Agostino were given the International Fair Play Committee Award on Saturday. After all the controversy surrounding this year’s Olympics, a little more of this kind of competitive spirit is just the note that the Games should end on.