Posted on 06/05/2012 6:19:50 PM PDT by presidio9
As Meghan Vogel turned for home during Saturday’s Ohio Division III girls state meet, she was in last place in the 3,200-meter race with no hope of finishing anywhere near the top. But her last-place finish became the most memorable part of the meet.
With 20 meters to go, Vogel, a junior at West Liberty-Salem High School in Urbana, was about to pass Arden McMath, a sophoomore from Arlington High School, when McMath collapsed on the track. Rather than continue running, Vogel 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 made sure McMath crossed the finish line first and said she was surprised by the praise she received for an act of selflessness she believed was anything but extraordinary.
“It’s strange to have people telling me that his was such a powerful act of kindness and using words like ‘humanity,’” she told ESPN. “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 knew was right and what I was supposed to do.”
Under the rules, a runner is automatically disqualified for helping another runner during a race,
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Rare.
Rush made a big deal about this but she was in last place anyway. Good for her helping this girl.
That act says a lot about this girl.....she reacted to the situation automatically, I have a feeling she is a kind person.....
Not so sure myself this was a good idea. What if the collapsed runner was having heart problems? Picking her up and toting her across the line could have very well killed her!
These rules are there for a reason.
idunno. just seems kind of weird.
I knew before I read this article that it had to be about a girl. I can’t imagine a boy doing this.
Maybe if it was Zack Mayo in “An Officer & A Gentleman...
“I got nowhere else to go”! Excellent movie very powerful.
Our brave new feminized world.
Kinda sick of hearing about this story. She basically disqualified both runners with the stunt (or would have, had anyone given a rat’s rear about 14th vs. 15th place). Had they been 1st vs. 2nd, should she stop because the other girl blew her engines out early?
Maybe it’s because they’re girls, or maybe because this is the “participating is the only thing, winning is for meanies” generation, but I really don’t see the heroism here.
I was a distance runner in high school and college, and would have been mortified if some other runner dragged me across the finish line. I’d have rather come across as “DNF” as opposed to being drug along.
They were both in a High School meet. If she had a vulnerable heart, her pediatrician would have told her not to do athletic activity.
She is a dumb ass. She should be banned from the team.
I should have posted in #2 IBDR (In Before Dumb Replies.) Now it’s too late.
I absolutely could see a boy doing this to cover up his embarrassment over coming in last.
That is good sportsmanship nothing more, and everything else is thinking too hard about it 20-20, which the girl didn’t have time to do and overeducation to figure out.
Good for her
As a mother with a teen daughter in track this story brought tears to my eyes. I would hope that my daughter’s first thought if she saw someone on the ground would be to help them. The day females stop having a soft heart is the day that civil society falls apart. I heard Rush talk about this and I will give him a pass. #1 he is a guy and #2 he doesn’t have a daughter. Now my teen son...he would know not to embarrass the guy sprawled out on the track and run by and pretend that it never happened. Thank God for differences between boys and girls LOL!!
I dunno, I found the heart attack post to be particularly, um, creative...
It is not all that unusual for runners to collapse, I’ve seen it in track and xc. Usually boys though.
It is not all that unusual for runners to collapse, I’ve seen it in track and xc. Usually boys though.
Win loose or draw is abut how you finish and this young lady won a race.
My GRANDMOTHER wants to fly planes...
Yeah, you’re right, though it made me think, why a heart attack and not a lung collapse, for example?
I don’t get the attitude. She was already out of the race. What the hell difference did it make.
Now if she was contending for 1,2 or 3rd, then I’d agree with you. But she was in last place.
What are you looking at MAYO-NAISSE????
Some amazingly heartless comments being made in here by some folks. Seems some are upset that she didn’t step on her on the way to the finish line.
Pathetic*
* - not you presidio9. I just sent this to you since you were the OP
I have to admit that I’m somewhat amused by the whole thing, but I will say that the people taking offense to the story sound like they have probably never loved a little girl. So I feel sorry for them more than anything.
Only if he finished and went back. This stuff happens more often than you would think. Mostly in cross country and track. Not so much I team sports.
Because at every HS girls track meet I've ever been to, the runners are dropping dead of heart attacks left and right. Sometimes no one manages to finish the race.
None of my girls is going to run track if I can help it. I'm teaching them how to wrestle.
Sounds like a heat stroke, which can be life threatening. Medics should have been summoned when she collapsed.
I was just thinking about all the stories of scores getting run up in HS girls basketball games. There was a 108-3 game in Texas, a 100-0 game in Utah, another one in Michigan. I’ll bet you my car that in each case the coach was male.
Yes, my daughter and I went on a 5 mile run today. After we BOTH had heart attacks, I said NO MORE. Running kills!
Or she could have collapsed out of sheer exhaustion. Happened to me onces but after crossing the finish line.
onces=once
Of course, but when someone collapses like that, assume the worst and call the medics. She should have been moved to a cooler place, had cool compresses applied and given water if she was alert enough to drink.
I think that those who condone her behaviour are like liberals - only caring about good intentions as opposed to consequences. What if she was having issues with her heart and she killed her by dragging her across the finish?
A few years ago, 15 student athletes died from heart failure in Texas. When the 16th one who collapsed was saved by the use of an AED (automated external defibrillator) the state required an AED to be present in schools and at athletic events.
Dozens of young athlete die from heart failure in the US each year while playing or practicing.
I hope you never are at an event when an athlete drops dead. And if you are, I hope an AED is available. By the way, refs and coaches have been saved by these devices, too.
The brother of a friend died playing basketball in his mid twenties. AEDs weren’t around back then. About 50-75% of athletes who collapse from heart failure can be revived by AEDs.
The school my kids attended now has 9 of them in the school and the athletic department has enough additional ones so that every team that goes on the road takes one along.
While it may seem humorous to suggest that a young atlete might collapse from heart failure, there are dozens of families in the US each that are not amused since it happened to their kid.
Sadly, some schools do not have these devices.
Wrestlers die, too.
http://www.highschoolot.com/content/blogpost/9060782/
http://muskogeephoenix.com/local/x1253553444/Middle-school-wrestler-dies-after-practice
http://www.4hcm.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-14673.html
I think we could find an angle to compare your attitude to that of your scary “liberals” too, and do it without much effort.
There was no heart attack, no brain stroke, no broken leg, no lung collapse, get it? Just good sportsmanship.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy will drop them too.
I think some people are just mimicking what Rush said without really thinking it through.
At least she was near last anyway (14th?). Often at these types of meets the top 8 or so may score points for the team. If it was top 16 who scored then she hurt her team by getting herself DQed.
“Rush made a big deal about this “
I heard that. He was getting in touch with his inner Ayn Rand, who notoriously regarded charity as unimportant.
It's just plain common sense that you don't let them keep exerting themselves.
Thanks for the lecture Church Lady.
My sarcasm was in response to the idea that the rules were put in place in case one of the contestants had a heart attack. They weren’t.
This story stirs the romantic notion in many people that you don’t leave your teammate/squad mate behind. Thank God that this girl wasn’t suffering a significant medical situation.
I know you were mocking the earlier post, but the way you did it didn’t work.
nicely done!
The post in question got positve feedback from multiple posters, and you seem to be the only person who couldn't handle it. Is it possible that it doesn't work for people with a stick up their a$$? I'm just saying.
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