I was reminded of this event, after seeing a news story about a Spanish runner helping a Kenyan runner finish the race in first place, because he misunderstood some signals as meaning he was done. The Spanish runner tried telling the Kenyan runner to keep going, but there was a language barrier. So the Spanish runner pushed the Kenyan across the actual finish line. Why? "It was the right thing to do."

Now on to my story...

Way back when I was in the USAF Tech School, we were Voluntold to work the Special Olympics trials that were occurring that weekend on base. Show up Sat morning at 7am, in PT clothes.

My squadron was assigned to the volleyball area (non competitive), we were able to see many other of the competitions. We could see the other competitions from our spot, or take breaks and go to other areas.

We saw competitors waiting for their friends to catch up. Leaders of the races holding hands as they crossed the finish lines. Winners turning around to cheer on 2nd place, 3rd. place, ..., and cheering the loudest for the person coming in last, etc, etc, etc

We were out there for over 10 hours playing volleyball. Having a absolute blast. Our only goal was to to make sure the the participants a fun time. Easy sets, no crazy blocking, no limit on hits per side, no points tracked, etc, etc, etc. Participants changing out every 30 minutes.

Despite putting on lots of sunscreen, we all had rather bad sun burns. This included the black and latino guys. We were supposed to get in trouble. When our CO found out where and what we were doing, he let us off. Then sent us off to mass-sick call. Lots of lotions, permission to not march and wear fatigues to classes for a couple of days.