An Olympic medal is awarded to successful competitors at one of the Olympic Games. There are three classes of medals: gold, awarded to the winner; silver, awarded to the 1st runner-up; and bronze, awarded to the 2nd runner-up. Do you know that there is another type of medal which most of us don’t know?

Hundreds of medals were given away in every Olympics. Plenty of records were broken and history was made in this Rio Olympics as Michael Phelps & Usain Bolt did it again as expected. Tears were shed as the medals were given away to athletes who put their life and soul into preparing for the Olympics.

This happens in every Olympics, but there is a rare fourth type of medal, which is given to the most heart-warming sportsperson in that particular Olympics. This medal is bestowed only once in 17 occasions in the history of Olympic Games. The Pierre de Coubertin medal, named after the father of the modern Olympic Games, is given to athletes who exhibit true sportsmanship, celebrate the Olympic spirit.

Nikki Hamblin And Abbey D’Agostino:

In the words of Coubertin himself, the Olympics are more about participating than winning. It’s a medal to celebrate “acts of selflessness and exemplary sportsmanship.”

New Zeland’s Nikki Hamblin and USA’s Abbey D’Agostino are the athletes who helped each other across the finish line after an accidental mid-race collision in the women’s 5,000m in 2016 Rio Olympics.

The award was earlier given to sailor Lawrence Lemieux, who sacrificed a near-assured medal, in order to save two Singaporean athletes from drowning. As Hamblin lay on the track distraught, her hopes for an Olympic medal seemingly evaporated, D’Agostino tenderly helped her to her feet and encouraged her to finish the race.

Watch Lawrence Lemieux Sacrificing His Medal:

“If I can even give her like one percent back of what she gave me when she helped me get up off the track that would be amazing. I can’t even put into words how amazing it is that she actually finished. When I turned around at the finish line and she’s still running I was like, ‘Wow’. I’m never going to forget that moment. When someone asks me what happened in Rio in 20 years’ time, that’s my story,” said Abbey D’Agostino.

In a statement, it said the D’Agostino and Hamblin story is one of humanity and sacrifice which has already captured the hearts of people across the globe.