The 2012 London Olympics will live long in the memory for the feats of the home athletes, but none was more amazing than the story of American 400m runner Manteo Mitchell. Mitchell was the lead-off man in the USA team for the heats of the 4×400 relay. Just 200m into the race, Mitchell – and a lot of the crowd – heard an audible crack. His left fibula, the smaller of the two shin bones, snapped and X-rays revealed a clean break. “It was literally bone, space, bone,” Mitchell said. “It broke in two.”
Running on adrenaline through the pain and with an altered stride – “I just focused on lifting my knees” – Mitchell posted a 46.1-second split.
4. Tiger Woods wins golf’s US Open on one leg
From a time when he seemed to win every tournament he played in, Tiger Woods produced probably his best, and bravest, display at Torrey Pines. Woods had turned up in San Francisco with a knee problem which steadily got worse and worse as the tournament progressed. Grimacing in pain, it was doubtful whether Tiger would complete the four days let alone win the trophy.
It turned out Woods had torn the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee and had sustained a double stress fracture in his left tibia, injuries which kept him out for eight months.
He said: “I couldn’t have quit in front of all those people.”
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