Crossing the line

Not by the Playbook

Aneta Grabmuller is both a winter and summer triathlete. She first started competing at the age of 15, but within a few years she retired having fallen out of love with the sport. She had been subjected to behaviour from her coach that had crossed the line. She was convinced that her weight was a problem and started to train harder and eat less. The strain on her body had caused bones to break whilst mentally she was depressed and anxious. Stepping away from the sport, she studied, became an IOC Young Leader and a certified safeguarding officer. Now aged 25, she is back and better than ever, and when not racing she continues to advocate of REDs (relative energy deficiency in sport).

In 1992, the British 400m runner Derek Redmond popped his hamstring in the Olympic semi-final. In absolute agony he got up and started to hobble to the finish line - determined to complete his race. Halfway round, his dad, Jim, ran on to the track to help his son home. It is an Olympic story that has inspired millions around the world.

As it is London Marathon weekend, we focus on a great story about crossing the line at the inaugural London Marathon which took place in 1981. Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen who, having battled stride for stride for all 26.2 miles, crossed the line together... hand in hand. In doing so, the pair famously were declared "joint winners" of the London Marathon.

And we are with two people as they get ready to compete in their very first ever marathons. One a multiple Paralympic champion and the other someone very close to Katie’s heart! So how have they found the training and having never completed the distance before?

We finish with the ultimate finishing line story from in Finland. Only a few weeks ago two skiers crossed the line and recreated one of the most legendary moments in Winter Olympic history. Exactly 45 years after it happened at the 1980 Lake Placid Games, the two competitors, one a Swede beat his Finnish rival by just one-hundredth of a second, a tiny margin in any event, but the two had been neck and neck for every inch of that 15km, cross-country race. In Scandinavia that race is lauded like no other, so it was big news when it was announced they would meet for a rematch all these years on.

(Photo: Sweden’s Thomas Wassberg and Finland’s Juha Mieto cross the finish line together. Credit : Matti Huutoniemi)