2nd Lieutenant Sam Kendricks won bronze at the Rio Olympics in the pole vault, but he’ll go viral across Facebook via this video that shows him aborting a practice vault when he hears the National Anthem being played at the track & field stadium.
Kendricks, an Ole Miss grad currently in the Army Reserve with the 655th Transportation Company in Millington, Tennessee, has been called one of the nicest Olympians…by the locals.
He said this after winning his bronze medal:
“They say back home, and jokingly in track circles, that if you win a medal it will change your life,” Kendricks said. “I think your life is changed on the way to that medal, honestly. With all the journeys and sacrifices that you make, all the training that you do, and the people you leave at home to watch. That is what is really the value of the (medal). I’m glad I have something tangible to bring home and show for it. I know that everybody in Oxford will love to see it. But the journey, like my coach says, is the goal. Not necessarily the medals. And it’s very fun to come and compete, but not necessarily the end of all things.”
Watch this reaction speed from Sam Kendricks:
Read the comments on this IG. Sam Kendricks is the anti-Ryan Lochte right now in Brazil.
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