From Ben – 21 August 2016
You may have seen on TV or heard about the 5000m women’s heat at the Rio Olympics. The NZ runner, Nikki Hamblin, fell and brought down the USA runner, Abbey D’Agostino. Abbey was up first and helped Nikki up, as they set off to catch up to the pack of other runners. But after a few paces Abbey hit the track again. Nikki stopped and went back for Abbey. Their chances of qualifying were now over but they helped each other. They ran together and eventually finished long behind the other women.
After the race they embraced each other in true Olympic spirit. Nikki recalls Abbey’s words, “Get up, get up, we have to finish this race.” Afterwards in an interview Nikki said, “sometimes I guess you have to remember trying to be a good human being is more important than you know. If I had not waited for her or tried to help her I would have been 10-15 seconds faster, but what does that matter?”
Here we see two wonderful lessons. Firstly, how important it is not to pass over other people who are in need, but to turn aside, putting our own agenda aside to meet the needs of others.
A second lesson is to see that people matter more than the things of this world, even if they be an Olympic medal.
Let us learn to value people more than perishable things, whatever they may be. This remarkable story of Nikki and Abbey has gone viral in the media and it has had a good outcome with both woman being included in the next round of the 5000 metre event.