It’s not a rare thing to hear the United States national anthem during the Olympics; you hear it at every sporting event ever, it seems. At the 2016 Rio Games, the US won 46 gold medals, so the Star Spangled Banner was played 46 times. Not too shabby, right? However, the anthem is a song that needs to be respected, even if it’s a really hard song to get right. Hence, when he heard the National Anthem, Sam Kendricks stopped what he was doing. While participating in qualifying. In the middle of a pole vault. Sam Kendricks stopped in the middle of the run-up to his vault when he heard the national anthem.
Of course, Kendricks has a reason to be patriotic. Not only is he an American athlete, he’s also a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve. Still, while it’s pretty normal to take off your hat or whatever when the song plays, but to come to a dead stop, drop your pole on the vault path, and stand at attention is pretty remarkable.
Even better, the incident isn’t the only thing Kendricks has to be a source of American pride: he finished third in the pole vault and took home a bronze medal! He took home the first medal in the event for an American man since 2004, and he’s the first medalist ever from the University of Mississippi (he’s also a two-time NCAA champion).
Tags: olympics, sports, sam kendricks, 2nd lt sam kendricks, sam kendricks pole vault, sam kendricks bronze medal, sam kendrick stops for national anthem, athletes, rio olympics, sam kendricks stops for national anthem during event, pole vault, usual sports events, us army reserve, army reserves