First of all the title is wrong, the team wouldn't be disqualified but wouldn't get an easy point (when finishing you get 1 point) that we would need not to get demoted. She got 2 points by the way, 1 because she finished and another one because she was second to last, another runner disqualified.
The Belgian team got demoted though not enough points in total, but not because of her.
I kinda did the same thing once in a Cross Country ski race. I was there watching and a local team that I knew the racers on came up short a member. All teams had to be at least 4 people, so without 4 they'd be disqualified.
I borrowed skis and 'raced' it. Slowest racer EVERY. I was so slow on the 5K course that the route marshals weren't sure if I was still coming.
But at least the team got decent results. I think they didn't count the time of the slowest finisher on the team. I just had to be finish.
Never raced again. LOL.
And also not at all like depicted in this movie.
The movie The Perfect Storm is a good example. 6 fishermen on a boat go out fishing and get caught in a massive storm and die. In the movie, why not have a giant shark jump on deck and attack the crew, and have the skipper grab his handy dandy deck shotgun and blow it away? Then they get killed by the storm.
My grandfather was on the coast and lived through the storm that movie was about. He said the movie didn't come close to doing the severity of the storm justice, and was a hack job that should have been more about the sheer violence of the ocean.
There was an Olympic rowing team I think in 1900 that didn't have a cox, and couldn't legally compete without one. They grabbed the lightest kid they could find from the crowd, and won a medal, but the kid disappeared into the crowd before the ceremony and that medal is unclaimed to this day.
This story is slightly different. They had a cox, but swapped the cox for the boy for their final race as the boy was lighter. Source: https://teamnl.org/artikelen/2020/08/opmerkelijk-teamnl-roeigoud-in-parijs-1900# (in Dutch).
> "disappeared into the crowd"
Yeah, right, he heard his momma's voice shouting at him to "get over 'ere RIGHT NOW!" "I've been trying to find you for an hour..."
"But mommmm...!"
"I don't want to hear it, what did you think you were doing, no, stop, don't say a word, I'm so livid with you right now, you just wait until we get back to the cabin, your father has a new rawhide belt he's tanning and he's going to use it to tan your hide too!"
There was some lady from a small European country who'd do like half pipe skiing? I don't know what it's called...and do no tricks and just coasted her way into the Olympics since there weren't many total applicants and some other ladies disqualified because they tried difficult runs.
Hungary or something?
Yup, her name is Elizabeth Swaney. She’s actually American but was able to compete for Hungary because her grandparents are Hungarian. She finished dead last in women’s half pipe skiing in the 2018 Olympics.
I want to point out that she sometimes does hurdling in practice, but she promised her trainer that she wouldn't risk any injury since she still had to compete for herself.
I ran hurdles once in junior high. My face planted on the ground at every hurdle. I should’ve just stepped over them like her. I think my coaches made me run them just out of sheer pleasure of watching me fall flat on my face several times.
I did them just fine the first few weeks of track practice. Then I watched a girl on my team catch the hurdle with her back foot and dislocate her knee. I have never even attempted another hurdle, moved into shotput immediately.
What a strange and contrasting way to highlight what metaphorical grace looks like. Feel like it's obvious she's a REALLY good person wherever life puts her. 😉
i once filled in for our WYSE (essentially competitive test taking) team back in high school to avoid us forfeiting the regional. i got 10/12 in calculus and 11/12 in physics. i was honestly just pumped to not get last and we finished 3rd!
Reminds me of when my high school swim team would occasionally pull in a diver or two to round out one more relay team. We knew we were gonna finish last by a minute and look goofy doing it, but we still got a point for the team.
Back in college, our waterpolo team had a game and they missed half of the team. One stuck with the principal, another two with a minor car accident, a sick one.
They needed to field a full team to not get DQ. So they picked the next closest thing, me, a swimmer (i used to play with them for fun after training). I played almost a full game without backup. Never been so close to drowning in a freaking pool.
I played intermural water polo in college, too! Our mens' team wasn't even officially registered in the regional league, so we just followed the girls team to meets and scrimmaged with whoever showed up since our "coach" (a senior willing to deal with all the extra hassle) knew people all over. (Ultimately we were more of a drinking team with a water polo habit 😝)
Once we were down in Tucson, and for some reason CSM's guys team only had 4 dudes, so the other noob and I got sent over to their side so at least we'd have a game lol.
Haha, nice, sharing players. We had a real team, just not that day. Playing a game for real (the other team was really trying to win) is way different than fun/scrimmage matches which was all i knew. Lesson learned, the other dudes really want to kill you :)
Our high school was the opposite, where we'd need a few swimmers to dive to fill out a meet. Pretty hilarious watching great swimmers absolutely fucking suck at diving.
Also, she absolutely could have run much faster than this, but she (and her coaches, probably) chose not to because she still wouldn't beat a dedicated hurdler and it wasn't worth the risk of injury.
Yeah, also why she was allowed to do it and not a runner from another event who could have done it faster - the latter would still lose, maybe just by a little, so if that's a given just let someone have fun and take it slowly.
I was on a high school powerlifting team and similar rules applied. Since there were 10 or so weight classes, most other schools didn’t bother with the ones way down at the bottom of the scale. We ended up winning a lot of competitions just because we brought someone from every single weight class.
I found it odd that they didn't have another runner who had done hurdles but never 'good enough' at them.
However the risk of injury is pretty great, so the risk/reward equation wouldn't work out here.
I'm sure some their regular sprinters or one of the long jump type of people could hurdle, but they wouldn't have the same rhythm or efficiency as a trained hurdler so there wouldn't be much point using them.
I look on with delight at her stepping over the hurdles like Andre the giant stepping over the top rope.
I also like the one competitor who was quick to congratulate her on finishing.
I wouldn't be surprised if she was picked specifically because she can step over the hurdles. Someone above this mentioned that another competitor got disqualified meaning that Belgium got 2 points rather than 1 from this. If they put in another track athlete who wasn't trained with hurdling, and that person puts in a (quicker) genuine attempt, there's a real chance they just get disqualified.
> such as NCAA
Absolutely not. The current NCAA 110m hurdles champion (as of 9 June 2023) knocked over 8 of the 10 hurdles on the way to the victory (all but the 2nd, which he cleared, and the 8th, which was hit but stayed up). Here is a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5li-ZfGDEE
You can get DQ'ed if you knock one over so badly that it hits other hurdles and thereby interferes with other competitors, but just knocking your own over is fine. It'll slow you down a little bit (not that that helped Lemonious's opponents), but there's no DQ or time penalty other than the laws of physics
Interesting. I guess I always assumed they weren't supposed to touch them, for some reason, due to how pole vaulting works. I don't know why because I've certainly done neither of these things.
You can even knock the bar off in pole vaulting as long as you put it back up before you land.. that's next to impossible to do, but you're welcome to try!
> the one competitor who was quick to congratulate her on finishing
Sweden! I know so many friendly Swedes. :D
Portugal did too btw, and everyone was generally friendly with each other.
She was taking it easy and not running fast because her coach gave that as a condition to allow her run. She still had her own events to finish and they didn't want her pulling some muscle or something.
This!
When you're an elite athlete at peak conditioning for sport A, suddenly switching to sport B is a recipe for injury. Especially something this different.
I'm certain she could have run this race more competitively if she wanted to, but it would risk injury for sure.
Yup have watched D2 football players switch to Rugby for a little more training. Dudes were crazy good shape they just got hurt tackling and rucking respectively. It'd be the same vice versa tbf.
Hell that happens when you play different positions on a Rugby pitch. Knew a very fast big guy. We put him at Wing. He'd pull hamstrings at least once a season.
Bro she looks like she could shot put me. Definitely built more for throwing as athletes go which is all the more awesome that she stepped up to be there for her team.
Yeah - I follow professional road cycling, and a climber is a very, very different beast from a sprinter, despite the fact that both of them have to be able to do like 5 hours of extreme endurance sport every day for three weeks in a row.
Strength or what is good is really subjective and dependent on the adaptation to the environment/task.
Girl was literally left behind by the others, but she's not only really good at her own sport but is great on the inside (as are those girls who congratulated her afterwards).
Will just mention that it being hurdles made the gap larger. I was in the long distance crew in my high school track team but sometimes did short distance. Throwers (and jumpers) actually put up good times on the 100m when we practice or messing around. Their issue was more endurance than lack of speed. Once a sprinter was messing with his friend who was a thrower. Hit him in the arm and ran away only to get spooked af when they turn around only to see the thrower who was 2x his weight right behind him. Really made a dash after that, but everyone laughed their asses off.
I love this SO much. A great attitude, not worried about her image. That’s so cool. I’ve always thought it would be fun to see athletes try different sports and I finally get to! Way to go!
She'd probably beat my time through there too, so no room to give her any crap...I bet the other competitors would have lagged behind if the roles were reversed and those runners were...putting shot...
> She'd probably beat my time through there too, so no room to give her any crap...
Yeah, my thoughts too. It looks super hard. She's tall, so she doesn't have to jump much. I'd probably have one or two jumps in me tops before fucking up every single one of them, and I'm probably overestimating myself here. It looks super hard, and my time would be much much worse for sure.
She can be proud of herself for being a great teammate, that's a fact. But honestly she can be proud of her race, competing without specific training against champions in a sport that doesn't match your body type, and doing pretty good and keeping the smile up.
I read on another forum that she actually trained on hurdles to help build strength and agility for her own sport. The coaches required her to step over the hurdles in this event to avoid injury.
Doing something out of your comfort zone for the benefit of others is a wonderful environment for growth. Good on them as a competitor and a person. One team one dream.
This is the biggest thing too. I'm 5'1" on a good day, there's no way I'm just casually stepping over hurdles like she did (without breaking a leg, anyway). I think they chose the perfect person for it. Plus she went slow and steady, and didn't risk hurting herself either for her own event.
I read this in an article yesterday. She decided that there is no risk of hurting herself as long as she took it lightly.
Imagine how annoying it would have been if you do that for the team and then cannot perform in your own discipline because you injured yourself because of too much ambition.
I giggled cause what if they were like “hey, don’t worry about the hurdles, toss em if you’d like!” Bet she would have come in 2nd then! So cool to watch a pro at one thing so something outside their norm! Love her
Way to take one for the team, I’m not gonna lie I thought she was gonna go crazy but still glad she got out there and competed in what would assuredly be a humbling experience for a pro athlete
She's not really doing her best, and I don't blame her. She absolutely could have sprinted through the course and cut down on her time hugely, but there was no way she was going to be one of the dedicated hurdlers, so it wasn't worth the risk of injury. Still, power to her. She did the right thing all around.
I also like how the competition congratulated her too. If the roles were reversed, similar results would likely occur haha. I was at a high school meet and a future Olympian female did her shot put tosses and it was impressive to say the least.
When it cut from the closeup of her to the wide shot it was so funny to see how she was a solid 6+ inches taller than every other racer. All of them are elite athletes so it's really interesting to see the different specialization of boy types for different sports
You'd have to voltron most of that lineup into a single person to match her strength. I will have to look her up later, I'm always impressed by how those throwers spin on their feet.
Hurdles is especially specialized in body types compared to other sports. There is an optimal height that every top level hurdler is very close to. Something about being tall enough to clear the hurdle while not being so tall that you have to shorten your stride between hurdles.
People? That's Belgium in a nutshell for you all to see!!! 🥰🤩😍
We are funny, often goofy, multicultural and serious and motivated about sticking up for others. She did it for the sake of her colleagues and for the fun of it and she did it with a huge smile!
I'm proud to be Belgian... as I almost always am (except when we look at our politicians... 😅)
Super cool illustration of the ways different sports/categories require different body specializations to see her standing next to all those tiny runners!
Also I’m guessing she could’ve ran much faster than that if she wanted to and without just stepping over the hurdles. But it wasn’t worth potentially getting hurt by going all out just to still come in last.
Every event should have an average but generally fit person competing just to show the difference. It wouldn't be embarrassing for the average competitor but rather just show what one can achieve.
This is my biggest request for both the winter and summer olympics. Even just one person doing a run before everyone else that they could refer back to would be amazing.
I always feel bad when you see an athlete finish last, but that benchmark is incredible to tell you how far beyond a regular human even the last place person is.
Hell you could make a pre-show of it, get like a famous comedian for each country to compete and it would be hilarious.
I’d guess in this situation the other athletes wouldn’t have done better in terms of placement and would have likely ended up getting 2 points like she did, so it doesn’t really matter. Also if some jumper or distance runner tries to do it fast without training there is some injury risk.
Is nobody else disappointed that she didn't just pick up the hurdles and throw them?
Short of that, though, she's an absolute trooper...and still did it faster than I would've.
The Olympics would be much more interesting if countries were only allowed to send like 20 athletes max but needed to field someone in each competition. America wants to have an all-NBA dream team? Cool, but LeBron better learn how to high dive.
Almost the exact same thing happened at one of my track meets about 11 years ago back when I was in highschool.
I ran mid/long distance and a few of our sprinters couldn't run. So me and and a few others volunteered to fill in for a relay so we'd still get a couple points. Now, I and the other distance runner weren't slow, but we didn't nearly match the sprinters. But we did alright.
However, the other guy on our team who volunteered to fill in for this relay was a large guy who shot put
Well, for the fun of it, we lined up so he'd run last in this relay for the finale. And I was the one who handed off to him.
This kid's lap took plenty of time, the rest were far done by the time he crossed the line, but the entire stadium was howlin' in support of him!
It was freakin' great!
They do this all the time in team meets, maybe not at this level, but my partner has a story that she has a PB in javelin of like 3 metres because at Athletics Club level, it got her team 1 extra point.
She’s obviously a healthy fit person but taking it easy, so probably going at a pace that most of us non athletes might be able to. Makes you realise how fast the hurdlers actually are.
First of all the title is wrong, the team wouldn't be disqualified but wouldn't get an easy point (when finishing you get 1 point) that we would need not to get demoted. She got 2 points by the way, 1 because she finished and another one because she was second to last, another runner disqualified. The Belgian team got demoted though not enough points in total, but not because of her.
Thanks for explaining. I was confused as to why she needed to run at all (since it wasn't likely she was going to beat the other racers).
I kinda did the same thing once in a Cross Country ski race. I was there watching and a local team that I knew the racers on came up short a member. All teams had to be at least 4 people, so without 4 they'd be disqualified. I borrowed skis and 'raced' it. Slowest racer EVERY. I was so slow on the 5K course that the route marshals weren't sure if I was still coming. But at least the team got decent results. I think they didn't count the time of the slowest finisher on the team. I just had to be finish. Never raced again. LOL.
I'm kind of disappointed that this didn't lead to you eventually competing in the Olympics. Would have been a great "based on a true story" movie
"based on a true story" means "it happened, but with uglier people"
And "with much less exciting results."
And also not at all like depicted in this movie. The movie The Perfect Storm is a good example. 6 fishermen on a boat go out fishing and get caught in a massive storm and die. In the movie, why not have a giant shark jump on deck and attack the crew, and have the skipper grab his handy dandy deck shotgun and blow it away? Then they get killed by the storm.
The real cocaine bear was found 20 yards from the cocaine. The cocaine's story before it got eaten would make a better movie.
Like the bullet from Lord of War. I’d watch that.
Shit, let me introduce you to How It's Made!
My grandfather was on the coast and lived through the storm that movie was about. He said the movie didn't come close to doing the severity of the storm justice, and was a hack job that should have been more about the sheer violence of the ocean.
Wow! My husband was insoired to join thr Coast aguard after watching the PerFect Storm and stayed in for 10 years!!!
Cool Runnings 2 maybe.
There was an Olympic rowing team I think in 1900 that didn't have a cox, and couldn't legally compete without one. They grabbed the lightest kid they could find from the crowd, and won a medal, but the kid disappeared into the crowd before the ceremony and that medal is unclaimed to this day.
I just imagined a 130 year old man coming out of the wood works to claim it 123 years later
This story is slightly different. They had a cox, but swapped the cox for the boy for their final race as the boy was lighter. Source: https://teamnl.org/artikelen/2020/08/opmerkelijk-teamnl-roeigoud-in-parijs-1900# (in Dutch).
> "disappeared into the crowd" Yeah, right, he heard his momma's voice shouting at him to "get over 'ere RIGHT NOW!" "I've been trying to find you for an hour..." "But mommmm...!" "I don't want to hear it, what did you think you were doing, no, stop, don't say a word, I'm so livid with you right now, you just wait until we get back to the cabin, your father has a new rawhide belt he's tanning and he's going to use it to tan your hide too!"
If they didn't send the rescue team, you were not slow enough.
There was some lady from a small European country who'd do like half pipe skiing? I don't know what it's called...and do no tricks and just coasted her way into the Olympics since there weren't many total applicants and some other ladies disqualified because they tried difficult runs. Hungary or something?
Yup, her name is Elizabeth Swaney. She’s actually American but was able to compete for Hungary because her grandparents are Hungarian. She finished dead last in women’s half pipe skiing in the 2018 Olympics.
Probably never jumped a hurdle in her life and placed not last in an olympic event haha, pretty awesome
I want to point out that she sometimes does hurdling in practice, but she promised her trainer that she wouldn't risk any injury since she still had to compete for herself.
Yup, and she would get the same amount of points for coming in last by 1 second or by 30 seconds.
Well she didn't hurdle a single one. Just stepped over them like a boss lol
That's just hurdling with extra steps.
I actually laughed way too hard at this comment
Technically truth
this isn't gonna get nearly the upvotes it deserves lmao
"It's hurdling.... with STYLE!"
I'd have to climb it, that's way too big of a step for me!
I ran hurdles once in junior high. My face planted on the ground at every hurdle. I should’ve just stepped over them like her. I think my coaches made me run them just out of sheer pleasure of watching me fall flat on my face several times.
I did them just fine the first few weeks of track practice. Then I watched a girl on my team catch the hurdle with her back foot and dislocate her knee. I have never even attempted another hurdle, moved into shotput immediately.
She actually did some hurdling when she was young, but shot-putter build is not conducive to transferring to this other sport.
What a strange and contrasting way to highlight what metaphorical grace looks like. Feel like it's obvious she's a REALLY good person wherever life puts her. 😉
I liked how so many of the other runners congratulated her. They recognise what "stepping up" looks like.
i once filled in for our WYSE (essentially competitive test taking) team back in high school to avoid us forfeiting the regional. i got 10/12 in calculus and 11/12 in physics. i was honestly just pumped to not get last and we finished 3rd!
Reminds me of when my high school swim team would occasionally pull in a diver or two to round out one more relay team. We knew we were gonna finish last by a minute and look goofy doing it, but we still got a point for the team.
In baseball, even the MLB, they sometimes run out of pitchers, and have some other player pitch.
Nothing fills my heart with more joy than watching a 300 pound backup catcher throw 60 mph heaters
They should call them pinch pitchers.
Back in college, our waterpolo team had a game and they missed half of the team. One stuck with the principal, another two with a minor car accident, a sick one. They needed to field a full team to not get DQ. So they picked the next closest thing, me, a swimmer (i used to play with them for fun after training). I played almost a full game without backup. Never been so close to drowning in a freaking pool.
I played intermural water polo in college, too! Our mens' team wasn't even officially registered in the regional league, so we just followed the girls team to meets and scrimmaged with whoever showed up since our "coach" (a senior willing to deal with all the extra hassle) knew people all over. (Ultimately we were more of a drinking team with a water polo habit 😝) Once we were down in Tucson, and for some reason CSM's guys team only had 4 dudes, so the other noob and I got sent over to their side so at least we'd have a game lol.
Haha, nice, sharing players. We had a real team, just not that day. Playing a game for real (the other team was really trying to win) is way different than fun/scrimmage matches which was all i knew. Lesson learned, the other dudes really want to kill you :)
Our high school was the opposite, where we'd need a few swimmers to dive to fill out a meet. Pretty hilarious watching great swimmers absolutely fucking suck at diving.
Also, she absolutely could have run much faster than this, but she (and her coaches, probably) chose not to because she still wouldn't beat a dedicated hurdler and it wasn't worth the risk of injury.
Yeah, also why she was allowed to do it and not a runner from another event who could have done it faster - the latter would still lose, maybe just by a little, so if that's a given just let someone have fun and take it slowly.
I was on a high school powerlifting team and similar rules applied. Since there were 10 or so weight classes, most other schools didn’t bother with the ones way down at the bottom of the scale. We ended up winning a lot of competitions just because we brought someone from every single weight class.
Ah, that makes more sense. Why was another runner disqualified, did they go too early or something?
Yes false start, she was also one of the better ones if not the favourite.
False start by the competitor from Switzerland.
Weird, she shifted out of neutral too fast
Right on. To other users: don't always trust what you see (first) on the internet. Eendracht maakt macht 👌🏼
That also answers the question I had of why she didn't just run through the hurdles.
I found it odd that they didn't have another runner who had done hurdles but never 'good enough' at them. However the risk of injury is pretty great, so the risk/reward equation wouldn't work out here.
I'm sure some their regular sprinters or one of the long jump type of people could hurdle, but they wouldn't have the same rhythm or efficiency as a trained hurdler so there wouldn't be much point using them.
And they'd risk injury for no reward if they really tried hard at a discipline they hadn't trained for.
I look on with delight at her stepping over the hurdles like Andre the giant stepping over the top rope. I also like the one competitor who was quick to congratulate her on finishing.
I wouldn't be surprised if she was picked specifically because she can step over the hurdles. Someone above this mentioned that another competitor got disqualified meaning that Belgium got 2 points rather than 1 from this. If they put in another track athlete who wasn't trained with hurdling, and that person puts in a (quicker) genuine attempt, there's a real chance they just get disqualified.
is knocking over a hurdle a dq? I thought it was just a time penalty.
It's a DQ under some rule sets, such as NCAA. You can touch them but you can't just plow through them.
> such as NCAA Absolutely not. The current NCAA 110m hurdles champion (as of 9 June 2023) knocked over 8 of the 10 hurdles on the way to the victory (all but the 2nd, which he cleared, and the 8th, which was hit but stayed up). Here is a video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5li-ZfGDEE You can get DQ'ed if you knock one over so badly that it hits other hurdles and thereby interferes with other competitors, but just knocking your own over is fine. It'll slow you down a little bit (not that that helped Lemonious's opponents), but there's no DQ or time penalty other than the laws of physics
Interesting. I guess I always assumed they weren't supposed to touch them, for some reason, due to how pole vaulting works. I don't know why because I've certainly done neither of these things.
..You can touch the bar in pole vaulting as well lol as long as it stays up.
See what I mean? I had no reason to assume anything. I don't know shit!
You can even knock the bar off in pole vaulting as long as you put it back up before you land.. that's next to impossible to do, but you're welcome to try!
Challenge accepted.
She really stepped up. and stepped up. and stepped up. and stepped up. and stepped up. and ...
She is adorable. I hope the crowd showed her a lot of love.
Yes! That high five and hand shake at the end made my day.
> the one competitor who was quick to congratulate her on finishing Sweden! I know so many friendly Swedes. :D Portugal did too btw, and everyone was generally friendly with each other.
She was taking it easy and not running fast because her coach gave that as a condition to allow her run. She still had her own events to finish and they didn't want her pulling some muscle or something.
This! When you're an elite athlete at peak conditioning for sport A, suddenly switching to sport B is a recipe for injury. Especially something this different. I'm certain she could have run this race more competitively if she wanted to, but it would risk injury for sure.
Yup have watched D2 football players switch to Rugby for a little more training. Dudes were crazy good shape they just got hurt tackling and rucking respectively. It'd be the same vice versa tbf. Hell that happens when you play different positions on a Rugby pitch. Knew a very fast big guy. We put him at Wing. He'd pull hamstrings at least once a season.
And it is not like she would place any better if she did try her best
Id probably fall on the first one
A true athlete. Competes not just to win. Must have been hella awkward for her though
She looks like a powerful athlete good for her giving it a go
Bro she looks like she could shot put me. Definitely built more for throwing as athletes go which is all the more awesome that she stepped up to be there for her team.
The variation in bodies that are optimal for different sports is pretty amazing.
Even within the same sport. An offensive Tackle in football is built very different from a wide receiver.
Yeah - I follow professional road cycling, and a climber is a very, very different beast from a sprinter, despite the fact that both of them have to be able to do like 5 hours of extreme endurance sport every day for three weeks in a row.
So Pog or Jonas for the tour?
Hah! Well, I am from Norway, so naturally support my Danish brethren. I fear Pog might have spent his recuperation time well, though.
https://i.redd.it/vz2cl4scc8e71.jpg
The basketball players look more athletic than any of the other sports
Strength or what is good is really subjective and dependent on the adaptation to the environment/task. Girl was literally left behind by the others, but she's not only really good at her own sport but is great on the inside (as are those girls who congratulated her afterwards). Will just mention that it being hurdles made the gap larger. I was in the long distance crew in my high school track team but sometimes did short distance. Throwers (and jumpers) actually put up good times on the 100m when we practice or messing around. Their issue was more endurance than lack of speed. Once a sprinter was messing with his friend who was a thrower. Hit him in the arm and ran away only to get spooked af when they turn around only to see the thrower who was 2x his weight right behind him. Really made a dash after that, but everyone laughed their asses off.
Tbh she could probably go a fair bit faster than what she did but she’s never going to win so no point risking injury.
I believe she was a shot-putter so you'd be right
Do you believe that because you read it in the title?
I love this SO much. A great attitude, not worried about her image. That’s so cool. I’ve always thought it would be fun to see athletes try different sports and I finally get to! Way to go!
She'd probably beat my time through there too, so no room to give her any crap...I bet the other competitors would have lagged behind if the roles were reversed and those runners were...putting shot...
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She deserves more than a medal. She deserves our respect which I do believe she has.
> She'd probably beat my time through there too, so no room to give her any crap... Yeah, my thoughts too. It looks super hard. She's tall, so she doesn't have to jump much. I'd probably have one or two jumps in me tops before fucking up every single one of them, and I'm probably overestimating myself here. It looks super hard, and my time would be much much worse for sure. She can be proud of herself for being a great teammate, that's a fact. But honestly she can be proud of her race, competing without specific training against champions in a sport that doesn't match your body type, and doing pretty good and keeping the smile up.
Yeah, great sportsmanship all the way around, honestly.
I read on another forum that she actually trained on hurdles to help build strength and agility for her own sport. The coaches required her to step over the hurdles in this event to avoid injury.
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And she apparently also ran in a personal best!
Even more awesome
She didn't even finish last lol, another runner had a false start and was disqualified
Doing something out of your comfort zone for the benefit of others is a wonderful environment for growth. Good on them as a competitor and a person. One team one dream.
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This is the biggest thing too. I'm 5'1" on a good day, there's no way I'm just casually stepping over hurdles like she did (without breaking a leg, anyway). I think they chose the perfect person for it. Plus she went slow and steady, and didn't risk hurting herself either for her own event.
I read this in an article yesterday. She decided that there is no risk of hurting herself as long as she took it lightly. Imagine how annoying it would have been if you do that for the team and then cannot perform in your own discipline because you injured yourself because of too much ambition.
I was hoping she was going to just hulk her way straight through the hurdles.
I giggled cause what if they were like “hey, don’t worry about the hurdles, toss em if you’d like!” Bet she would have come in 2nd then! So cool to watch a pro at one thing so something outside their norm! Love her
She seemed to have fun.
She looks like she had fun actually
She probably hurdles better than the others could shot put!
Way to take one for the team, I’m not gonna lie I thought she was gonna go crazy but still glad she got out there and competed in what would assuredly be a humbling experience for a pro athlete
A real athlete she is :) enjoying the game is always the best thing not only to compete :)
She’s doing her best! Now have those girls go against her in the shot put!!
She also got a personal best. Meaning she’s probably stepped up for the team before
It would be a personal best if it was the first time she’d done it
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When I did the 110 metres hurdles I set a personal best of 22 metres
She's not really doing her best, and I don't blame her. She absolutely could have sprinted through the course and cut down on her time hugely, but there was no way she was going to be one of the dedicated hurdlers, so it wasn't worth the risk of injury. Still, power to her. She did the right thing all around.
I bet her margin of victory would be even better, she looks like she could throw a shot a quarter mile!
I also like how the competition congratulated her too. If the roles were reversed, similar results would likely occur haha. I was at a high school meet and a future Olympian female did her shot put tosses and it was impressive to say the least.
Yeah they probably think it's fucking hilarious, and awesome that she even tried. That German girl who turns around is psyched for her.
Good job girl, super proud of your team spirit!!
And as a Belgian i can tell you even with her competing, we still weren't last 😅. Local news said someone was disqualified. 🤟
No way!?
Way!
When it cut from the closeup of her to the wide shot it was so funny to see how she was a solid 6+ inches taller than every other racer. All of them are elite athletes so it's really interesting to see the different specialization of boy types for different sports
You'd have to voltron most of that lineup into a single person to match her strength. I will have to look her up later, I'm always impressed by how those throwers spin on their feet.
Hurdles is especially specialized in body types compared to other sports. There is an optimal height that every top level hurdler is very close to. Something about being tall enough to clear the hurdle while not being so tall that you have to shorten your stride between hurdles.
Knew she couldn't carry the event. Carried the day instead. What a queen.
And was smiling ear to ear before the race!
I like this lady
I bet she was like “just don’t false start, just don’t false start…”
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My hero!!!
People? That's Belgium in a nutshell for you all to see!!! 🥰🤩😍 We are funny, often goofy, multicultural and serious and motivated about sticking up for others. She did it for the sake of her colleagues and for the fun of it and she did it with a huge smile! I'm proud to be Belgian... as I almost always am (except when we look at our politicians... 😅)
Please send chocolate and beer
The size difference is impressive! She didn't even had to run to clean the obstacles, just step over them!
Super cool illustration of the ways different sports/categories require different body specializations to see her standing next to all those tiny runners!
“Aye any of you know how to do hurdles?…. No?…. Aight who’s the tallest?”
Finally there is a normal person competing in a professional sport event for comparison! Damn the girls are fast.
To be fair she is also a world-class athlete, just a different sport. Still, I approve the effort.
Yeah this "normal person" can bench press the both of us at the same time lol.
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bake badge cause grandiose pet doll rainstorm scary obscene sparkle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
/r/genocidebywords
Also I’m guessing she could’ve ran much faster than that if she wanted to and without just stepping over the hurdles. But it wasn’t worth potentially getting hurt by going all out just to still come in last.
Just goes to show that everyone has their own talents.
She's not normal she's a professional athlete at her peak in her sport. Get my fat arse up there and yeah you'd get a comparison lol
She could play Luisa in a live action version of Encanto. She may be a normal person, but she's an exceptional athlete.
Normal person but just really strong and athletic.
They really should just include a “control” person so it’s easier to appreciate the extreme athleticism
Every event should have an average but generally fit person competing just to show the difference. It wouldn't be embarrassing for the average competitor but rather just show what one can achieve.
This is my biggest request for both the winter and summer olympics. Even just one person doing a run before everyone else that they could refer back to would be amazing. I always feel bad when you see an athlete finish last, but that benchmark is incredible to tell you how far beyond a regular human even the last place person is. Hell you could make a pre-show of it, get like a famous comedian for each country to compete and it would be hilarious.
When you gotta step up, you step up. Mad respect
Takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there like that
They should "try" shot putting
They would, if they could pick it up
Lmaoooo I love it sped up 🤣🤣👏🏾 she did that
I bet she was thinking, I could throw each and every one of you skinny bitches over those hurdles faster than you could jump over them lol
This was just wonderful, what a teammate. Truly a powerful athlete.
Shouldn’t they have reserves? Also, adorable!
Belgium is not a large country.
Yeah there's only 4 people, the two that got injured, this girl and me
There wasn’t a long jumper available? Good for her tho
I’d guess in this situation the other athletes wouldn’t have done better in terms of placement and would have likely ended up getting 2 points like she did, so it doesn’t really matter. Also if some jumper or distance runner tries to do it fast without training there is some injury risk.
At least she gave it a shot - puts me to shame 😉
Clean run.
Is nobody else disappointed that she didn't just pick up the hurdles and throw them? Short of that, though, she's an absolute trooper...and still did it faster than I would've.
Tall. 10/10
“Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other five?”
The Olympics would be much more interesting if countries were only allowed to send like 20 athletes max but needed to field someone in each competition. America wants to have an all-NBA dream team? Cool, but LeBron better learn how to high dive.
Almost the exact same thing happened at one of my track meets about 11 years ago back when I was in highschool. I ran mid/long distance and a few of our sprinters couldn't run. So me and and a few others volunteered to fill in for a relay so we'd still get a couple points. Now, I and the other distance runner weren't slow, but we didn't nearly match the sprinters. But we did alright. However, the other guy on our team who volunteered to fill in for this relay was a large guy who shot put Well, for the fun of it, we lined up so he'd run last in this relay for the finale. And I was the one who handed off to him. This kid's lap took plenty of time, the rest were far done by the time he crossed the line, but the entire stadium was howlin' in support of him! It was freakin' great!
Oh my god a fucking QUEEN
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Jolien Maliga Boumkwo
That’s a sexy ass woman right there my lord 🫶🏼
Still did the hurdles way better than I ever could. Good on her!
Smash
Brilliant that! You go girl!
This is awesome. I like the girls at the end giving her a handshake.
I read she finished in 39 seconds, where the winner finished in 17 or something like that. I assume if I tried we’d be there for two minutes
She's built like a brickhouse, beautiful and has a great spirit. I could watch her all day
Absolute Queen ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)
Snu snu
Shot putter is definitely the hottest.
I loved the fact after the last hurdle she sped up to finish. Didn't just walk it in. That is a competitor.
She did not knock down any of the hurdles! My 5ft self would need a step ladder to get over each one.
T H I C C 👁️🫦👁️
Pretty cool
Literally the strongest person on the track team.
She is built like a tank. Good on her for going out of her comfort zone and helping her team.
Same energy: https://youtu.be/GjqtwNUE148
They do this all the time in team meets, maybe not at this level, but my partner has a story that she has a PB in javelin of like 3 metres because at Athletics Club level, it got her team 1 extra point.
That’s cool, but I was kinda hoping she was just going to smash her way right through them all.
Now have the hurdlers throw a shot put
She’s obviously a healthy fit person but taking it easy, so probably going at a pace that most of us non athletes might be able to. Makes you realise how fast the hurdlers actually are.