Olympic Committee Recognizes Athletes for Selflessness, Exemplary Sportsmanship
The International Fair Play Committee (CIFP) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) presented U.S. runner Abbey D'Agostino and New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin with the Fair Play awards, for their acts of selflessness and exemplary sportsmanship during the first round heats of the 5,000 meter race.
The Olympic award recognizes the values of execellence, friendship, and respect in an athlete and both runners exhibited those values as they helped each other to the finish line.
During the 12.5 lap race D'Agostino collided with New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin knocking them both to the ground and seemingly out of the race.
Por su gran gesto olímpico, Nikki Hamblin y Abbey D'Agostino fueron recalificadas por los jueces y avanzaron pic.twitter.com/nTk0yHTPpP
— Sebastián Amaya (@sebaamaya) August 16, 2016
But D'Agostino did the unexpected when she helped Hamblin get up so they could finish the last mile.
"I always told her, 'If you go down, here is what I want you to do,'" Mark Coogan, D'Agostino's coach, told USA Today. "I told her to get up, dust herself off, have a quick look around, and then get right back to running. Obviously she did pretty much the opposite of that, and the world got to see the kind of person she is. She did the right thing."
D'Agostino says it was Christ in her who took action.
"The thing about that moment was everything happened so fast. And it's just, all I know is I got up and my first instinct was 'Okay, turn around, we gotta finish this,'" D'Agostino, told the "TODAY" show. "I don't think that was me, I think that was literally the spirit of God in me, like, 'Let's go.'"
Unfortunately during the collision D'Agostino tore her ACL and had trouble finishing the race. Hamblin returned the favor by trying to help D'Agostino to the finish line but as Hamblin later told reporters D'Agostino "could hardly stand."
The injured runner urged Hamblin to finish the race without her. Hamblin finished 16th in 16:43.10, and D'Agostino limped to the line in 17:10.02.
.@abbey_dags ran a MILE with a torn ACL and meniscus and a strained MCL in the OLYMPICS. So inspired by her toughness. ❤️
— emma coburn (@emmajcoburn) August 17, 2016
Hamblin praised D'Agostino's kindness after the race, telling the media that she embodied the Olympic spirit.
"I'm so grateful for Abbey for doing that for me," she said. "That girl is the Olympic spirit right there. I've never met her before. I've never met this girl before, and isn't that just so amazing? Regardless of the race and the result on the board, that's a moment that you're never, ever going to forget for the rest of your life, that girl shaking my shoulder like, 'Come on, get up.'"
Both Hamblin and D'Agostino advanced to Friday's final after a protest but D'Agostino was in no condition to compete.
However, she said she doesn't regret her decision to help Hamblin, who finished 17th in the final.
"Although my actions were instinctual at that moment, the only way I can and have rationalized it is that God prepared my heart to respond that way," D'Agostino said. "This whole time here, He's made clear to me that my experience in Rio was going to be about more than my race performance—and as soon as Nikki got up I knew that was it."
Hamblin said the unexpected award is special to them and that D'Agostino's selfless act will stick with her for a lifetime.
"I think it’s very special for both Abbey and myself," she said. "I don’t think either of us woke up and thought that that was going to be our day, or our race, or our Olympic Games. Both of us are strong competitors and we wanted to go out there and do our best on the track.”
