Ivan: An international lesson in giving a helping hand

G’day. You’d be forgiven, in this age of selfish self promotion, to think that those wonderful values of camaraderie and looking after each other have gone forever with Covid. Certainly I’ve seen people turning on each other, avoiding each other, selfishly emptying the shelves of toilet paper and then selling it on the black market – I think you’d be forgiven for saying the pandemic has brought out the best and worst in human behaviour.

So it was incredibly uplifting when I received this not from Mick, a Humble Heroes listener about an even in the marathon in the Tokyo Olympics right in the middle of the pandemic.

He writes, I’m just forwarding this extract from CNN news yesterday. It gave me an incredible lift and I thought might do the same for others.

“Kenyan runner, Abel Mutai was just a few meters from the finish line but got confused by the signage and stopped, thinking he had finished the race. A Spanish runner, Ivan Fernandez, running behind him realized what was happening with his fellow competitor and started yelling at the Kenyan, "Keep running! Keep running!". Abel Mutai did not know Spanish and did not understand it. In the middle of a race between world class competitors, Ivan Fernandez had encouraged Abel Mutai to claim the prestigious victory.

When a journalist asked Ivan why he did that. Ivan replied, ′′ My dream is that one day we can have a kind of community life in which we push each other and help each other to win."

The journalist pressed, ′′ But why did you let the Kenyan win?"

Ivan replied, ′′ I didn't let him win, he was already going to win. The race was his."

The journalist insisted, ′′ But you could have won!"

Ivan looked at him and replied, ′′ But what would be the merit of my victory? What would be the honor in that medal? What would my mother think of that?"

Values are passed down from generation to generation. What values do we teach our children? Let's not teach our children the wrong ways and means to win. Instead let's pass on the beauty and humanity of a offering a helping hand”.

So chivalry, sacrifice, integrity, love, honesty, kindness, friendship are all still there below the surface, often scared to come out because they don’t feel safe. Let’s do what WE can to help them flourish. Well done Ivan, you may not have won that gold medal but you score big gold in my Humble Heroes hall of fame.