Canada's Denny Morrison won the silver medal in Wednesday's 1,000-meter speedskating final at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. But here's where the story gets interesting -- Morrison was only in the race because teammate Gilmore Junio voluntarily gave us his spot so Morrison could skate instead.
The roots of the swap lie in last month's Canadian qualifying race for the 1,000-meter event in Sochi. Morrison fell during that, meaning he finished too late to make the squad but was slotted as Canada's first alternate. This despite the fact that Morrison actually had a much better chance to win the race than Junio, who made the Canadian squad after Morrison's fall. Junio is a 500-meter specialist who finished 11th in that race on Monday.
[seealso url = "http://sale-online.click/2014/02/12/skiers-tie-for-gold-olympics/"]
So, in a statement released before the race, Junio said he would give up his spot so that Morrison could participate and hopefully add to Canada's medal count. Morrison did just that, finishing with a time of 1 minute, 8.43 seconds -- just .04 seconds after Dutch gold medal winner Stefan Groothuis.
Morrison called Junio stepping down an "amazing gesture" before the race, and afterward nominated his teammate for a very special role in the games' closing ceremony:
@cdnhappygilmore for Closing Ceremonies flag bearer! This guy showing everything that is Canadian pride and Olympic Pride. #ThankYouGilmore— Denny Morrison (@Denny_Morrison) February 12, 2014
That mutual respect, sacrifice and humility is what the Olympics are supposed to be all about. But what about the moment like when Junio and Morrison first agreed on the move? What was that like? Junio explained it all perfectly -- well, kind of -- by posting the final scene from Mighty Ducks:
It's kind of like this... but I'm not a coach, nor did I look Denny in the eyes like that... #wellkindof http://t.co/t5HnGDIaOD— Gilmore Junio (@cdnhappygilmore) February 12, 2014
Stay tuned to see if Junio actually ends up carrying the Canadian flag for the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony on Feb. 23.