Not normal folks

The TV networks are starting to promote the upcoming summer Olympics. One of the commercials features the dramatic vault by gymnast Kerri Strug, who completed her final vault in Atlanta on a sprained ankle.
I remember watching that event. I taped it and I still have it somewhere on one of my hundred or so unmarked VHS tapes.
It was an amazing feat or courage. Stuff like that is why professional athletes make so much money. They do things that normal folks can't or won't do.
I remember watching El Dorado athlete Carlos Meeks in high school. A great football and basketball player, Carlos won the decathlon as a senior and might be the best athlete I've had the priviledge to cover. One of my highlights was at the Oil Belt Track Meet. Carlos was one of the best quartermilers in the state. He ran the event at the Oil Belt and pulled up lame with a hamstring injury at the first curve.
With everyone in the stadium yelling for him to get off the track, I watched as Carlos hobbled, holding his leg all the way around the track, finishing fourth in the race.
Normal folks don't do that.
Then again, Carlos was also a football player. You expect that out of a football player.
But, how many times have you seen a girl do what Strug did. Girls aren't raised to do those types of things. When girls get injured, they listen to their parents, coaches or doctors and they sit down.
It made me think. How many girls have I covered who could've possibly done what Strug did?
Not only does it take incredible toughness and competitive spirit, there's also just a ting of insanity involved as well. Most girls are too smart to risk their careers.
The first area girl that immediately sprang to my mind was Union's Mary Beth Gilmore. Gilmore sprained her ankle in the district tournament, then never missed a game as the Lady Cyclones kept playing, all the way to the state finals.
I remember sitting at PC next to the Union bench at the regionals. A referee ran past Coach Gary Don Smith telling the coach he needed to get Gilmore out of the game because she was in so much pain. Smith told me afterwards, she would never have come out of the game.
Gilmore pretty much ended her own career by playing on that ankle. Ankle surgery caused her to miss her freshman season at SAU and, during the year she sat out, she found other interests and never played again.
She was a true warrior, though.
Another girl with that quality was also a Lady Cyclone named Heather Adams. As a senior, she injured her wrist. It was the same injury NBA star Chris Mullen had on his non-shooting hand that forced him to miss a season. Adams' injury was on her shooting hand. The doctor tried to put the arm in a cast for six months. She said I've got a game next week.
Adams played the entire season, even after injuring her back over the Christmas break. Everytime she caught the ball, she would wince in pain. After road games, I'd see her laying on her stomach in the bleachers because her back was hurting. But, she played every big game for Union and led her team to state.
My final example would be Smackover's Jamika Tatum, who played her senior basketball season with a torn ACL. Nope, I didn't know it was possible, either.
Tatum injured her knee and, although she was told her career was over, she couldn't watch her teammates play without her. She hobbled on one leg that season and, although she wasn't even a shadow of her healthy self, the Lady Bucks were still better when she was on the court.
None of the three girls I mentioned did the smart thing. All are hard-headed, stubborn, bull-headed and competitive to borderline insane levels.
If they were my children, I'd have a difficult time dealing with them. From a reporter's perspective, it was a priviledge covering them.