M7: Running Past Unfairness
What would you do if you trained your entire life to achieve a goal, and then in the moment you were about to reach your goal, someone unfairly ruined it? What would you do? This is an incredible story of someone who pushed back against the emotion of the moment, and gracefully accepted that he was good enough…even though what he achieved wasn’t what it could have been.
This is the story of Vanderlei De Lima and his quest for gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
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M7: RUNNING PAST UNFAIRNESS
WELCOME BACK…IT’S MONDAY….ONE OF THE HARSH LESSONS WE’RE ALL FORCED TO LEARN WHEN WE’RE YOUNG IS HOW TO DEAL WITH UNFAIRNESS, BECAUSE WE’LL, LIFE IS UNFAIR. IT STARTS WITH A SIBLING OR FRIEND GETTING SOMETHING YOU DIDN’T…AND IT CARRIES ON THROUGHOUT LIFE…FROM THAT UNDERPERFORMING COWORKER GETTING THE PROMOTION YOU WANTED BECAUSE THEY KISSED UP TO THE BOSS….TO THE KINDEST PERSON YOU’VE EVER KNOWN BEING DIAGNOSED WITH TERMINAL CANCER. LIFE JUST ISN’T FAIR.
THIS IS A STORY ABOUT SOMEONE WHO REACHED THE MOMENT HE HAD DREAMED ABOUT AND TRAINED FOR HIS ENTIRE LIFE, AND AT THAT PIVOTAL MOMENT, WAS FACED WITH A TERRIBLE INJUSTICE…AND HOW HIS RESPONSE INSPIRED PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD.
EPISODE
VANDERLEI DE LIMA WAS BORN IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL, IN A REGION CALLED PARANA. HE WAS THE YOUNGEST OF SEVEN SONS.
WHEN DE LIMA WAS YOUNG, HE WORKED IN THE FIELDS AS A DAY LABORER. IT WAS THERE, RUNNING THROUGH THE FIELDS, WHERE HE DISCOVERED HE COULD OUTRUN JUST ABOUT ANYONE. FROM THAT POINT FORWARD HE DREAMED OF MAKING HIS WAY OUT OF THE TOUGH, LOW-INCOME NEIGHBORHOOD AND BECOMING A PROFESSIONAL LONG-DISTANCE RUNNER.
AND BY THE TIME HE WAS 33, DE LIMA HAD DONE JUST THAT. THAT YEAR HE WON THE PANAMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP. THEN HE WON THE FIRST MARATHON OF 2004 IN HAMBURG, GERMANY WHICH LED HIM TO THE 2004 SUMMER GAMES IN ATHENS, GREECE.
THIS WAS HIS MOMENT. HE KNEW HE HAD A CHANCE. HE WAS PEAKING AT THE PERFECT TIME AND HE HAD THE CONFIDENCE HE NEEDED TO GO OUT STRONG AND TAKE HOME THE FIRST-EVER OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL IN MARATHON FOR BRAZIL.
ONCE THE RACE BEGAN, IT WAS CLEAR THE MAN FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS, WHO FELL IN LOVE WITH RUNNING IN THE FIELDS OF SOUTHERN BRAZIL, WOULD NOT DISAPPOINT HIS FAMILY AND HIS COUNTRY. DE LIMA SET OUT ON A BLISTERING PACE AND BY THE 20 MILE MARK, HE WASN’T SLOWING. HE WAS NEARLY 30 SECONDS AHEAD OF THE SECOND PLACE RUNNER AND FEELING STRONGER AND STRONGER WITH EACH STRIDE.
BUT AT MILE 22, WITH ONLY 4 MILES LEFT, AS HE GLIDED TOWARD THE FINISH LINE OF THE 26-MILE RACE…THE UNIMAGINABLE HAPPENED. AN IRISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST NAMED NEIL HORAN, WHO HAD DISRUPTED THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX A YEAR EARLIER, RAN ONTO THE COURSE WITH THE GOAL OF BRINGING ATTENTION TO HIS RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. HE RAN STRAIGHT AT DE LIMA AND PUSHED HIM UNTIL HE FELL INTO THE CROWD ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COURSE. MEMBERS OF THE CROWD RESTRAINED THE PROTESTER, AND DE LIMA WAS QUICKLY HELPED BACK TO HIS FEET AND ONTO THE COURSE WHERE HE PICKED UP HIS PACE.
DE LIMA WAS IN SHOCK THAT HE HAD JUST BEEN ATTACKED BY A SPECTATOR, BUT HE DID HIS BEST TO FOCUS ON RUNNING. WHILE THE INCIDENT WAS BRIEF, IT COST HIM 10-15 SECONDS OF HIS LEAD, CUTTING HIS LEAD IN HALF, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, IT COMPLETELY DISRUPTED DE LIMA MENTALLY.
HIS LEGS SUDDENLY BEGAN TO CRAMP AND HIS GAIT BECAME UNEVEN. FOR THE NEXT MILE HE COULD SENSE HIS LEAD SLIPPING AWAY AS HE LIMPED ALONG….AND SURE ENOUGH AT MILE 24, TWO MILES FROM THE END OF THE RACE…HE WAS PASSED BY THE SECOND-PLACE RUNNER….AND NOT LONG AFTER, BY ANOTHER.
DE LIMA COULD SEE THE TWO RUNNERS IN FRONT OF HIM, SEPARATING THEIR LEAD, AS THEY ENTERED THE FINAL MILE, AND HIS MIND COULDN’T COMPREHEND WHAT HAD GONE WRONG. HOW HAD THIS HAPPENED? WHERE WAS SECURITY? WHY HIM?
HE TURNED INTO THE FINISH AT PANATHENAIC STADIUM, THE ANCIENT STADIUM THAT HOSTED THE FIRST EVER MODERN OLYMPICS IN 1896….AND AN INTERESTING THING HAPPENED. THE UNFORTUNATE EVENT THAT HAD TAKEN PLACE ONLY FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE, WAS NO LONGER ON HIS MIND. HE WAS OVERCOME WITH JOY AS HE SAW THE CROWD. AS HE CIRCLED THE TRACK, DE LIMA LIFTED HIS ARMS EMPHATICALLY AND CELEBRATED HIS FINISH WITH ENTHUSIASM AND A SMILE FROM EAR TO EAR. HE PUT HIS ARMS OUT TO HIS SIDES AND PRETENDED HE WAS AN AIRPLANE AS HE MADE HIS FINAL LAP…BLOWING KISSES TO THE CROWD UNTIL HE FINISHED AND SECURED A BRONZE MEDAL FOR HIS HOME COUNTRY.
THE PROTESTER WAS SENTENCED FOR HIS ACTIONS AND SERVED TIME IN JAIL, BUT NOTHING COULD CHANGE WHAT HAD HAPPENED. THE BRAZILIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE APPEALED WHAT HAD HAPPENED, HOPING TO HAVE DE LIMA’S MEDAL CHANGED FROM BRONZE TO GOLD IN LIGHT OF WHAT HAPPENED, BUT THEIR APPEAL WAS DENIED.
SOMETIMES LIFE ISN’T FAIR.
AFTER ALL OF THIS, YOU WOULD THINK DE LIMA WOULD HAVE BEEN BITTER. HE SAID “I’M STILL VERY PROUD OF MYSELF. THIS IS THE RESULT OF VERY HARD WORK. I WAS WELL TRAINED, AND I WAS EXPECTING TO WIN A MEDAL. I HAVE ACHIEVED MY GOAL, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED, I’M HAPPY THAT I WAS ON THE MEDAL PODIUM WITH THE OTHER ATHLETES.”
DE LIMA MADE A STATEMENT IN ATHENS. IT WASN’T WITH HIS FEET BUT WITH HIS CHARACTER…. REMINDING PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD THAT IT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU IN LIFE THAT MATTERS. IT’S HOW YOU HANDLE IT THAT COUNTS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8h4S6osl-E
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Horan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panathenaic_Stadium
https://worldathletics.org/news/news/vanderlei-de-lima-the-story-of-a-man-that-g