New Zealander long distance runner Hamblin and D’Agostino of the United States both hit the deck on the fourth lap in the second heat at the Olympic Stadium on day 11 of the Rio Games. Hamblin came to her aid, this time, hanging back with D’Agostino and offering her encouragement.
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If there’s one thing Olympic audiences love more than medals, it’s moments that exemplify the spirit of the Games.
“Someone had to go help her”, Hamblin said.
Abbey D’Agostino never imagined doing the right thing would cause such a stir.
In an Olympics that has seen a few unsavory incidents – the Egyptian judoka who refused to shake hands with his Israeli opponent, the booing of a French pole vaulter by the Brazilian crowd – Hamblin and D’Agostino provided a memory that captured the Olympic spirit.
“I’ve never met her before”. Such an awesome woman. Instead it turned into a ideal demonstration of one of Olympism’s founding principles – that it’s “a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind”.
The two runners were unacquainted – until Tuesday’s fall.
She previously told podcast Running On Om that as a young runner she’d felt “burdened” by the expectations placed upon her as a successful athlete.
But D’Agostino was in severe pain, and it looked like she had taken an injury, and couldn’t run.
“I’m so thankful to be a part of this”, D’Agostino said. “And I am so glad she did”.
D’Agostino, now in a wheelchair, has torn her ECL and will need surgery.
Following the collision between the two athletes, D’Agostino wound up limping past the finish line in 17 minutes, 10.02 seconds. She urged Hamblin to go on, but in a moment reminiscent of John Landy’s immortalised hand to fellow Australian Ron Clarke in 1956, the Kiwi waited for the American before setting off again.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – The 5,000-meter runner whose act of friendship captured the Olympic spirit will not return to the track in Rio after tearing ligaments in her knee. “When someone asks me what happened in Rio in 20 years’ time, that’s going to be my story”. After making it to the finish, D’Agostino was helped off of the track in a wheelchair.
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The D’Agostino-Hamblin moment also moved Olympic officials, who awarded both of them a place in Friday’s final.
