Question

Answers of nine gold medals

Answer 1

Nine Gold Medals’, written by the American Rock vocalist David Roth, is a song that inspires human compassion and cooperation. The poem is based on a story about the nine differently-abled athletes in a Special Olympic event. In a race, when one runner fell to the ground, all the others stopped and returned back to help him stand on his feet and then they walked hand-in-hand to finish the race. Each of the athletes was awarded a gold medal in recognition of their outstanding show of empathy and compassion.

Variations of the song are available on the internet. But the version sung by the Scottish singer Iain MacKintosh in 1996 is included in the ICSE board collection ‘Treasure Trove’. Though MacKintosh mentioned it as ‘a true story’ in his introduction, an online report claims it to be partly true. According to the folks at the Special Olympics Washington office, the incident happened at a 1976 track-and-field event held in Spokane, Washington. A contestant did take a tumble, and one or two of the other athletes turned back to help the fallen one, culminating in their crossing the finish line together, but it was only one or two, not everyone in the event. The others continued to run their race.

Answer 2

Answer:

All the nine contestants walked hand-in-hand to the finish line. There were nine winners, instead of one, and each was given a gold medal. All the contestants displayed empathy turning the Special Olympics into a really 'special' one.