A Nasty Fall Leads to One of the Best Rio Moments

A nice moment emerged out of a rough one in Rio Tuesday morning: During a qualifying race for the women's 5,000 meters, Abbey D'Agostino appeared to accidentally clip the foot of New Zealand's Nikki Hamblin, and both fell to the ground hard. “When I went down I was like, ‘Why am I on the ground’ and suddenly there was this hand on my shoulder,” recalls Hamblin, per USA Today. D'Agostino had gotten up but stopped to help Hamblin. In doing so, D'Agostino discovered she had injured her leg in the crash—it buckled, and she fell again. Hamblin then helped her up, and didn't move on until she was sure D'Agostino was steady on her feet, recounts Yahoo. They both finished the race, far behind the pack.

“I am so grateful to Abbey for doing that for me,” says Hamblin. “I had never met her, isn’t that so amazing? It is a moment that I will never ever forget for the rest of my life.” The good news is that both runners successfully petitioned the results and will be allowed to compete in the final. However, it remains unclear whether D'Agostino will be able to run it. She hobbled noticeably in the laps after her fall, though Hamblin greeted her with a hug at the finish line. (More Rio Olympics stories.)