After fall, they rise to epitomise Olympic spirit

Rio de Janeiro, August 17 

D’Agostino, 24, quickly got back up, but, rather than carrying on with the race, she stopped to help her fellow competitor who remained on the ground and appeared to be crying after falling hard on her shoulder.

Crouching down on her hands and knees, D’Agostino was seen helping up the New Zealander and urging her to continue. D’Agostino helped Hamblin back on to her feet but had injured her leg in the accident. Refusing to quit, D’Agostino ran the rest of the race with what appeared to be a right ankle injury, while 28-year-old Hamblin stayed by her side to help her continue. Hamblin later finished in 29th place, one ahead of D’Agostino who limped across the finish line. The pair embraced at the finish, before D’Agostino was taken from the track in a wheelchair.

“That girl is the Olympic spirit right there,” Hamblin said after the race. “I’ve never met her before. Like I never met this girl before. And isn’t that just so amazing. Such an amazing woman.

“Suddenly, there was this hand on my shoulder, like ‘Get up. We have to finish this’ and I was like ‘Yup, yup, you’re right’. This is the Olympics Games. We have to finish this. “She helped me first. I tried to help her. She was pretty bad,” Hamblin said, who eventually left D’Agostino behind and was certain the American would have to stop.

“I didn’t even realize she was still running. When I turned around at the finish line and she’s still running, I was like, wow.”

— The Independent