Thursday 11 April 2024

The Gold Medal

Bill Havens was on the canoe Olympic team heading for the Paris Olympic Games in 1924. However his wife was expecting a baby and he didn’t want to miss this opportunity to see his son being born. Yet his wife convinced him that he should go. But Bill was determined not to miss this blessed event, even though the canoe team had a chance to win a medal. Actually he was terribly disappointed because his team-mates won the gold medal. Years passed, and his grown son Frank was chosen also for the canoe team to represent the USA in Helsinki 1952. Sure enough he won the Gold medal with his team-mates! Immediately he wrote to his father and told him ‘Dad, what you didn’t accomplish because of me, I did it for you. When I get home, I will give you the medal, because I think you deserve it more than I do.’ Frank died in 2018, aged 94.

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