The Rower

2 The Rower Mr. Hope, the janitor at our school, walks with a limp. Sometimes people make fun of his limp. It always makes me angry to hear them laughing at him. Watching him make his way slowly around our school with his broom and cleaning supplies in hand, I often wondered why he limped. One day as I was standing in the hall, I saw two boys laughing at Mr. Hope's limp. The principal saw this and was very mad. I tried to explain that I didn't know these boys, but the principal took all of us down to the basement. He showed us a picture of a young man standing by a long, thin boat. “ This is Mr. Hope when he was a young man, " said the principal. I was shocked to learn that our janitor was once a great rower. In the 1968 Olympics, Mr. Hope had advanced to the final round. His only real competition was one other racer. The race started. These two boats were soon far ahead of the other boats, racing neck and neck towards the finish line.

The race was going well when suddenly, Mr. Hope heard a huge cracking sound. He glanced over at his opponent and saw that his boat was sinking fast. The man was in trouble because the boat had broken right in the middle. He was stuck inside, unable to escape. The other boats were a long way back. Mr. Hope was the only one who could do anything. Without stopping to think, he dove into the water and pulled the man up from underneath the water. The other boats passed them on their way to the finish line, leaving the two men alone in the water. The other man had a broken leg and Mr. Hope's leg was badly cut by the sharp wood splinters. Mr. Hope never finished the race. He never got a gold medal at the Olympics. He did end up getting a special medal for sportsmanship. His leg was never the same after his injury, and he has always limped since then. As they stood there listening, all the boys felt ashamed of what they had done. We all realized that Mr. Hope was a hero. His bravery and selfless actions made him an Olympic champion forever.