High school junior Meghan Vogel was the big winner at an Ohio Division III girls state track meet on Saturday afternoon, even though she finished dead last.
With 20 meters to go in the 3,200-meter race, Vogel was about to pass Arden McMath, a sophomore from a rival school, when McMath collapsed on the track.
Rather than continue running, Vogel stopped, helped McMath to her feet, placed McMath’s arm around her shoulders and carried her across the finish line.
“Any girl on the track would have done the same for me,” Vogel told ESPN.
Vogel even made sure McMath crossed the finish line first and said she was surprised by the widespread praise she received for an act of selflessness.
“It’s strange to have people telling me that his was such a powerful act of kindness and using words like ‘humanity,’” she said after the fact.
“When I hear words like that I think of Harriet Tubman and saving people’s lives. I don’t consider myself a hero. I just did what I was supposed to do.”
Wow. If only more people approached life like Meghan. Inspiring.
The cool thing: Under the rules, a runner is automatically disqualified for helping another runner during a race, but the officials allowed McMath and Vogel’s times to remain in the results, in second-to-last and last place, respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment