A race with little fanfare ended with one of the more heartwarming moments of the Paris Olympics.
The first of four women’s 100m preliminary races – with the top three in each simply advancing to the first round of the event – took a painful turn at the Paris Games on Friday when South Sudan’s Lucia Moris crumpled to the ground and started screaming pain.
Silinia Pha Aphay of Laos, running alongside Moris on lane 2, finished sixth in 12.45 seconds, officially ending her Olympics.
But then made a moment that will be remembered at the Paris Games when she rushed towards the starting line to catch the attention of doctors, according to Washington Post.
The footage shows Moris, who was about 30 meters shy of the finish line, lying on the ground clutching her leg in pain.
Pha Aphay, who caught sight of the accident out of the corner of her left eye, told her Olympian to “just cry,” according to the Washington Post.
“We are athletes,” Pha Aphay, who made his Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, told the newspaper.
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“We are 100 meters away – same thing. All 100m athletes must know what it feels like to be injured. And this is a big competition. It is a big dream to come here. But you get hurt here. So everyone knows the feeling.”
The 28-year-old reportedly kept Mori company as she was strapped to the stretcher and rolled out of the stadium.
Some of the other runners came to check out the South Sudanese athlete as well.
It marked a bittersweet moment of sportsmanship at the Games and certainly a remarkable way to kick off the first day of athletics.
Congo’s Natacha Ngoye won the preliminary heat with a time of 11.34 seconds, but failed to advance to the semi-finals after finishing sixth in her first heat.
Team USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson, making her Olympic debut, is among the favorites and qualified for the semi-finals with a time of 10.94 seconds.