Rose Harvey – Olympic Champion

By Shlomo Maital   

Rose Harvey

  Rose Harvey represented Great Britain in the Paris Olympics Marathon.  She finished close to last, 2 hours and 51 minutes, almost half an hour after the winner.   She won no medals.  And – she is a champion.

   Rose Harvey ran the entire 26 mile marathon with a stress fracture in her femur.  In other words, she ran for nearly three hours with a broken leg.  I can only imagine the pain.  Today, she is on crutches and cannot put any weight on her leg.  It will heal, and she will run again. 

      Why would someone run for three hours in agony?  Rose kept telling herself, to do just another mile (a method I have myself used…when you fell you are out of gas).  She told herself she was running to her fiancé, Charlie,  whom she will marry in three weeks.  He was awaiting her at the finish line. 

    Stress fractures are cracks in the leg bone,  caused by repetitive force,  such as repeated up and down leg motions  or running long distances.   Track and field athletes get them, so do military recruits who carry heavy packs over long distances. 

    Marathons are a microcosm of life.  You constantly ask, why go on?  What’s the point?  The point is so clear – to finish what you committed to finish.  Despite everything. And when you do, it translates to other challenges in life. 

      Rose Harvey will run again, and compete at a world class level.  And count on it, she will never quit.