I’m not exactly sure what your instinct is when you’re running and you fall over, but mine normally isn’t “tuck into a ball and keep rolling.” Luckily that was the instinct for high school hurdler Brooklyn Anderson, who was participating in the Oregon state championships when she tripped over the final hurdle and just rolled her way to the finish line.
Unquestionably the most impressive part of this isn’t the roll, it’s having the wherewithal to understand in a split-second that trying to stand and run across the line was going to be too slow. Momentum was already in her favor, so might as well do a cannonball and hope it all works out.
It did, and speaking after the race Anderson explained what she was thinking in the moment.
“I wasn’t sure how far back everybody else was behind me, so I just knew to just keep rolling, because I wanted to get first,” she said. “The emotion was confusion, because I wasn’t sure if anyone had caught me yet. And then once I saw it up there, I was just so proud, just very, very happy. Nobody’s ever cheered for me that loud before.”
It deserves massive props for one of the most unconventional finishes to a race we’ve seen.
