7-Year-Old's Victory in Race Goes Viral

Talaya Crawford may be the daughter of champion boxer Terence "Bud" Crawford, but she established herself as an athlete in her own right Saturday during a 200-meter track race in Nebraska. The 7-year-old finished first in the pack—but it was what happened at the start of the race that drew the most attention. With her very first step, Talaya ran out of her right shoe. As her competitors sprinted forward, Talaya jogged back a few paces, picked up her shoe, forced it on her foot, then resumed running. And the 6-second delay didn't seem to matter. By the mid-way point, she was catching up. And on the final stretch, she pulled ahead. She finished two seconds before the second-place finisher in what For the Win calls an "incredible comeback victory."

A video of the race, part of the Amateur Athletic Union's Wings of Omaha Invitational at Northwest High School, has been viewed more than 9.5 million times on Twitter. The 34-year-old Crawford himself shared the video on Instagram. "I just can't stop thinking about my (daughter's) track meet yesterday. She just doesn't have a clue how much she just motivated me," he wrote. "She let it all hang out even when she was hit with adversity." She's had some practice. She's been running with Omaha’s Apollo Track Club of Omaha for about two years, coach Shunta Paul tells the Omaha World-Herald. It probably helps that "she hates to lose." Paul says Talaya was embarrassed by the start, even after her victory. But "to me, this just speaks volumes never to give up." (More uplifting news stories.)