Sometimes we don’t get the fairy-tale ending in sports.
Too bad.
Emily LeVan deserved one. The Oklahoma native has been training for the U.S. Olympic marathon trials the past few months while her daughter battles leukemia, and early Sunday morning in Boston came her chance to make the Olympic Games.
LeVan finished 67th with a time of 2:45:45.
The winner, Deena Kastor, finished in 2:29:35. Magdelena Lewy Boulet and Blake Russell also made the Olympic team with times of 2:30:19 and 2:32:40 respectively.
LeVan might have finished well back of the pack, but as she told me before the trials, just getting to the starting line would be a triumph.
It’s safe to say, LeVan triumphed in more ways than one.
The efforts of her, her husband, Brad, and her daughter, Maddie, have raised more that $64,000 for cancer research. They have reached thousands with their website, www.twotrials.com, and they reached millions late last week when their story was chronicled on NBC Nightly News.
So, hats off to Emily LeVan. Olympian or not, she is an American we can all cheer.