Manteo Mitchell of the Team USA Men’s Track Team broke his leg, but kept running his portion of the 4x100M relay in London. People wonder what it means to be the greatest, and usually it means pushing through pain. Check out the amazing video here.
Sports are usually all about leaving your comfort level far away from the arena. It really is mind over matter. That’s exactly what happened in this particular relay.
In the 4x100M relay, four men run a single lap. It is also called the mile relay. Mitchell was about half way through with his lap when the unthinkable happened:
“It felt like somebody literally just snapped my leg in half…”
That feeling was the sensation of breaking your left fibula.
“I heard it and I felt it…But I figured it’s what almost any person would’ve done in that situation.”
What he means is finishing the race. He kept pushing and his relay team even managed to win! He kept repeating a little phrase to himself “faith, focus, finish…faith, focus, finish.”
“Even though track is an individual sport, you’ve got three guys depending on you, the whole world watching you…You don’t want to let anyone down.”
He watched the team finish the race after limping off to the side. Mitchell knew something was terribly wrong with his leg. He will now spend the rest of his visit in London with a cast and crutches, but he seems satisfied to know that he did his part, and didn’t lose the race for his team.
In fact, he even managed to run his lap in about 46.1 seconds, which is insane all by itself. He runs the first leg of the relay, which is very important to give the team a strong start.
Lucky for him it was a clean break and he won’t actually need any complicated procedures. It should heal perfectely fine and he should be back on the track before long.
The back story is that he says he tripped at the Olympic village, which could have played a role.
The video of Manteo Mitchell as he breaks his leg during the 4x400M relay is only available over at NBC Olympics.
It’s worth the time.
Pictures: PR Photos
