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American Olympic diver Alison Gibson had arguably her worst day in the sport when she hit her feet on the diving board during the women’s 3m springboard event on Wednesday.
No one would have blamed her if she called it quits with bruised and bleeding feet and an opening dive score of 0.0, but she didn’t.
Instead, she sucked it up, performed her final four dives and finished the competition… in last place.
“I hit my heels and my feet on the board,” Alison Gibson said after the nightmare results, according to Reuters. “I have cuts along the sides, and then I bruised my right heel pretty good, but I was determined to keep going.”.
On Thursday, Gibson shared an amazingly positive message for someone who saw their Olympic dreams shattered by a 0.0 score in her first dive.
“This was my first dive at the Paris twenty twenty-four Olympics in my 15 years of diving,” she wrote alongside a video of her fateful attempt.
“This has never happened to me. My feet were bleeding. My heels were painfully bruised from hitting the board. And everybody on the pool deck thought I was going to scratch.
“But I didn’t scratch.
“I kept my chin up and I kept fighting until the end of that event,” Gibson continued.
“That’s what being an American is about. It’s about standing strong with grit and perseverance through highs and lows.
“This was far from the outcome I wanted, but I fought with everything I had to represent my country as well as I could and I’m proud of that.
“To those on the outside, this may look like an embarrassing failure. But to me this journey to the Olympics has been anything but a failure.
“And I pray that my grit can inspire others to keep fighting even when they feel like all is lost.
“Keep your chin up even when you fall short. Keep your chin up because you’re worth more than just one painful moment.”
Alison Gibson added in the description to the video, “My heart and my body hurt, but I know that this competition does not and will not define me. If you have a moment when you feel like all is lost, don’t give up hope. You are beautifully and wonderfully made.”