A race with little fanfare ended with one of the more heartwarming moments of the Paris Olympics.
In the first of the four women’s 100-meter preliminary races — with the top three in each simply advancing to the first round of the event — took a painful turn at the Paris Games on Friday when South Sudan’s Lucia Moris crumpled to the ground and started shrieking in pain.
Silinia Pha Aphay of Laos, who ran alongside Moris in Lane 2, finished sixth in 12.45 seconds officially ending her Olymics.
But then made a moment that will be remembered at the Paris Games when she darted towards the starting line to grab the medics attention, according to the Washington Post.
Footage shows Moris, who was roughly 30-meter shy of the finish line, laying down on the ground, gripping her leg in agony.
Pha Aphay, who caught sight of the accident out of the corner of her left eye, told her fellow Olympian to “just cry out,” according to the Washington Post.
“We are athletes,” Pha Aphay, who made her Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games, told the paper.
2024 PARIS OLYMPICS
“We are 100 meters – the same. All 100 meters athletes have to know how being hurt feels. And this is a big competition. It’s a big dream to come here. But you get hurt here. So everybody knows the feeling.”
The 28-year-old reportedly kept Moris company as she was strapped to the stretcher and rolled out of the stadium.
Some of the other runners came to check in on the South Sudanese athlete as well.
It marked a bittersweet moment of sportsmanship at the Games and certainly a notable way to kick off the first day of track & field.
Congo’s Natacha Ngoye won the preliminary heat with a time of 11.34 seconds, but failed to advance to the semifinals after finishing sixth in her first-round race.
Team USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson, making her Olympic debut, is among the favorites and qualified for the semifinals with a time of 10.94 seconds.