Sports is all about winning. As they say, nobody ever cares about the second man to land on the moon. Nobody cares about the person who came second. They also say that you don’t win the silver but you lose the gold.
But, then again, there are people like Lawrence Lemieux who rise above themselves and remind us that sport is not just about winning. Sportsmanship triumphs everything, it triumphs an Olympic gold, it triumphs billions of prize money because a victory is remembered for at most a decade while sportsmanship is remembered for a lifetime.
Here is Lemieux’s story.
# 5 – Lawrence Lemieux’s ultimate sacrifice
“The first rule of sailing is, you see someone in trouble, you help him,” says Lemieux. So, when he saw two sailors in a bad situation, one barely hanging on to the boat and other swept further away due to bad waves, he naturally went ahead and saved them heroically.
But, it was not just natural. It was not just a sailing trip gone bad. Lemieux was in the midst of his 1988 Seoul Olympics Finn Class race halfway through and was in second position with a medal almost certain.
Lawrence Lemieux had a choice. He could go on and finish his race and etch his name in Olympic history or he could go on and save two unknown sailors who were competing in a difference race. Lemieux made the choice that makes us talk about him even today.
He went towards the Singapore Sailing boat that was torn apart. He dragged the first sailor Joseph Chan into his boat as he was too injured to climb aboard. Then, he rescued the other sailor Shaw Her Siew into his boat. After that, he turned his boated against the wind and waited for help to arrive. A Korean Navy boat came and took Siew and Chan with them. Lemieux later resumed the race and finished in 22nd place out of 32 boats in the race.
When asked about his heroic and selfless act, Lemieux commented
“My thought process was: do they really need help because a lot of times you are able to save yourself.
“But I couldn’t understand if they were saying yes or no. I just had to go. If I went to them and they didn’t really need help, c’est la vie. If I didn’t go, it would be something you would regret for the rest of your life.
“But I wasn’t thinking that at the time. It’s only now, in retrospect, you think that way. At the time, you just go.”
Immediately after the race got over, the International Yatch Racing Union decided to give Lemieux the second place which he would have obtained if he had not abandoned the race. He was also awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship. The medal has been given to only 12 athletes till date.
Asked if he ever regretted missing an Olympic gold, Lemieux said that he would the same thing if the same situation ever arose again. Lemieux never made it to another Olympics but he saved the lives of two men.
Lawrence Lemieux showed the whole world what the Olympics was all about. The Olympics is not all about winning. Yes, people from hundreds of countries come to the Olympics to win a medal but that isn’t what the Olympics is about. It is about courage, it is about self sacrifice and sportsmanship. Mr. Lemieux embodied what the Olympics is all about.
Here are the other entries that made it to our list.
# 1 – Derek Redmond and the Spirit of Olympics
# 4 – Nadia Comaneci’s perfect 10
