In a women’s 5,000 meter heat in Rio earlier this week, Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand fell and tripped up American Abbey D’Agostino in the process. D’Agostino got up, helped Hamlin to her feet, and both finished roughly two minutes behind first place.
The two women didn’t know each other and had never spoken before the race, with both seeking a place in the final. With 4½ of the 12½ laps remaining, they collided so quickly that Hamblin was stunned momentarily. “When I went down I was like ‘Why am I on the ground’ and suddenly there was this hand on my shoulder,” Hamblin said.
The hand belonged to D’Agostino. “Come on, get up,” the American was saying. “We have to finish this race.”
And they did.
After the race, this happened:
You know I think the Olympics are now bloated, venal, corrupt hypocritical reality TV programming at the expense of their hosts, substantially participated in by arrogant jerks like Hope Solo and Ryan Lochte, but even I have to applaud when genuine sportsmanship, compassion, selflessness and human caring breaks out like this.
Now will someone explain what Slate writer Justin Peters’ problem is, as expressed in his piece, I’m Starting to Hate That Moment When Olympic Runners Helped Each Other to the Finish Line?
What did he want D’Agostino to do, kick the New Zealander and step on her face as she started running again?
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Pointer: Slate
Source: USA Today
Ethics Alarms 
Nah, he’s just a party pooper.
And struggling to have something to write about.
I haven’t been following the Olympics except that they have it on the big TV in the coffee shop at the intellectual geezer academy where I live and where I hold court just about every morning with lots of smarter than average people. But as critical as you are of her, and as cynical as you maybe be about her, I was delighted to read in Politico how Hillary basically won the Olympics by Tweeting congratulations to all the USA winners. Okay, it was probably the bright idea of an aide, but because Trump didn’t Tweet one syllable about the Olympics she came out ahead. Politico posits that our being “great” there didn’t support his slogan that only he can make America great. Then the great delight came later this morning when he had just landed on his publicity stunt tour of Baton Rouge and Paul Manafort resigned. Until the Olympics came on all the commentators were talking about was Manafort and there was no coverage of Trump (at least on MSNBC). I have a photo on my blog of the plane on the tarmac before Trump got off with the “Breaking News: Trump Campaign Chair Manafor Resigns” on the bottom of the screen. Sweet justice! see http://halbrown.org
Jack,
His problem with the Olympics is the same as yours — they’re bloated and over-commercialized. His problem with this “special” moment is that it’s going to be used as yet another way to commercialize the games.
Will that happen with this particular moment? Who knows. But, in general, he has a point.
-Neil
How does how a moment will be used by others in any way change or minimize the act itself? He has no point whatsoever.
I guess it wasn’t special enough…” It would have been an extraordinary gesture if front-runner Almaz Ayana had stopped”, or if one of them had come back to win, but it seems the moment didn’t live up to his definition of a great moment. I don’t understand him either.
Most of the Olympics has been pretty boring this year. I did watch the match between the US and Italy in men’s volleyball which got real interesting and well showed the tension between the two teams. The two ladies running the 5000 meters really did demonstrate sportsmanship at it’s best. Justin Peters at Slate is being a snotty jerk and probably couldn’t run 5000 meters if his life depended on it.
Writers like Justin Peters, and more others than I could begin to try to name, make their living by being contrarians.
“Most of the Olympics has been pretty boring this year.”
Except for those who don’t like sports at all, I can’t see how anyone could find the Olympics boring. There are 28 sports to choose from, so if you find one sport boring, watch another.
I think when someone like Justin can come up with this ” D’Agostino, it turned out, tore her ACL. If she’d stayed on the ground, her knee shredded into ribbons, would she have been any less heroic?” and not see or understand the difference, really speaks volumes about his understanding of the differences in character. It might be because he lacks it. I’m pretty sure that contrary to this thought “as if the decision to finish or withdraw from a race holds any broader social implications.” there are plenty of good, genuine implications that can be drawn from the actions of these two athletes. The way things are shaping up with the real world, I think examples of good character are really refreshing.
I don’t typically read slate. It’s not like the Onion is it?
Slate is a mess, better than Salon, occasionally provocative and perceptive. Jamelle Bouie is an embarrassment to punditry. Mow and then it finds a good ethics issue.