Arkansas native Jeff Henderson is back at his childhood home this week after winning a gold medal in Rio for men’s long jump.
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Henderson, who tried out for the Kansas City Chiefs in the offseason, won Olympic gold with a jump of 8.38 meters. She is the one who raised me when I was young. “I feel like I’m dreaming right now”. “I remember going for a touchdown, I could hear her yelling”.
Henderson’s mom suffers from Alzheimer’s, a disease she has had for 10 years. “She got sick when I was 17, 18 years old, and that was hard for me to do that, and leave her there”. With friends and family around, Henderson placed the medal on an American flag draped across his mother’s legs as she rested in bed.
More than 100 people, including students and coaches from the high school he attended, were waiting for Henderson when he arrived at Clinton National Airport in North Little Rock on Wednesday.
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It was an emotional homecoming, but it could not have been more ideal for Henderson and his mother. Though she can no longer speak, the family says he’s proud of her son. Track & Field at Rio Olympics%INLINE%.
