The One Lap That Meant Everything

If I were to ask, “who won, the men’s 400-meter dash at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics?” It would most likely illicit a puzzled look, especially if you aren’t a Track & Field aficionado. Asking who finished second and third probably would be even more difficult to recall even for an expert.

But, if you are old enough to remember those games some thirty years onward now, you’ll have no trouble remembering who finished dead last in one of the two semifinals and why that was among the most important events in Olympic history.

That last place finisher was Derek Redmond of the United Kingdom. Redmond’s run, that resulted in his being disqualified, is one of the most memorable in Olympic history, perhaps the history of sport, not for its time or its success but for who helped Derek finish and that he did finish.

His father, Jim Redmond, in attendance, leaped a barrier and ran to the aid of his injured son who was valiantly, but seemingly futilely, trying finish his lap. The elder Redmond, then 51, put his arms around his heartbroken son and waved off officials and together they finished one lap of the track that meant everything in terms of its humanity. Jim Redmond died last week, at the age of 81, having successfully completed his lap.

After a life full of successes, sometimes against barriers of prejudice and significant hardship, as an immigrant from Trinidad who built his own business making machinery for the food industry in Northampton, called J. Redmond & Son, it is not the least bit ironic that Jim Redmond is remembered for his part in a moment of pain and personal tragedy that was the slowest quarter mile in Olympic history. It underscores that sometimes our greatest triumphs aren’t in the winning or the starring, but in preservering, enduring, lifting others, and just finishing. And so, J. Redmond & Son completed that lap.

The lap should have belonged to Derek Redmond. He was the British national record holder and considered a solid medal contender. Standing on the podium in Barcelona would have made up for his missing the Olympics in Seoul, four years earlier, when an Achilles tendon injury just before his first heat, caused him to withdraw.

This time after four years dedicated to getting back to the Olympics, the pinnacle of his sport, and a lifetime of work, the younger Redmond took his spot in the blocks and was moving well when injury hit him again. His hamstring popped. His race was over. Fate had now twice denied him in the form of injury. But Derek, perhaps driven on by the pain or the memory of coming so close four years earlier, got up and started to hobble toward the finish line. His race, his chance for a medal, long past.

That’s when Jim arrived, in shorts and a Nike T-shirt and cap, he gathered up his wobbling and devastated son and together they finished the race. The cap was emblazoned “Just Do It,” a slogan that became prophecy in this moment. Officials and security personnel tried initially to intervene but then quickly realized what they were witnessing. It was a moment of extraordinary intimacy and consolation, a father’s love for his son, playing out on the greatest sporting stage in the world.

The winner of that gold medal was Quincy Watts, of the United States, who broke the Olympic record set in Mexico City 24 years earlier by Lee Evans. But Watts was not alone in becoming a champion. The video highlights of the Redmonds’ run were ultimately featured in a memorable Visa commercial narrated by Morgan Freeman, with the tagline, “Go World.”

Perhaps the lessons for athletes and parents alike in 2022 to take from Jim Redmond that day in Barcelona, isn’t that he tried to spare Derek from pain or that sport like life is ever quite fair. It’s that Jim Redmond was there to help Derek finish what he started because there is honor and dignity in doing just that, despite the pain and lack of fairness.

Godspeed to you, Jim Redmond! Your lap inspires us still.