One Year Later: The sports world helps heal broken hearts and bodies

Across the country, sports are like religion. Many grow up in families, thrilled by the idea, the complexity and the obsessive qualities that being a sports fan comes with. Much of the nation grew up in ball parks or stadiums, watching a whole host of players teams and future and current legends duke it out in the atmosphere that only sports can create. And then these children grow older and try this wonderful idea out for themselves, picking up a baseball glove, a hockey stick or a football for the first time and wondering what it would be like if one day they got to a place where they would be one of those heralded athletes, playing before thousands in a jam packed stadium.  It is like this that they work. They work for years and years putting in long hours of aerobic strengthening, limits pushing and thousands upon thousands of throws shots or catches before one day they either give it all up or win it big.

While it does not matter what sport you play, the Boston Marathon is a kind of sport that takes more work than any other. You see, even now, mankind still had that lingering ability to fight, to block someone from getting what you want to retain as are necessary traits in say football or basketball. But what they are not born with, what one must have to work immensely at before even beginning to gain proficiency is the idea, the endurance and tolerance for brutal, grinding pain that comes with running for 4 hours for 26.2 miles.

There is something magical about the marathon.

But the sports world, the fans of the “Big Four” remain connected to the marathon. They appreciate the sacrifice that its athletes go through and at the same time revel in the stories that those athletes bring with them. It is like a partially severed friendship that sports fans have with the Boston Marathon. It is run just once a year meaning that many who follow the sport do not have much more to focus on once race week has passed. And yet every year we watch the race and are amazed by what it showcases and we are reminded of how good this race it to its competitors, to its fans and to its city.

Unfortunately, the will of our race was tested 1 year ago and even this, this race based solely on overcoming daunting obstacles and powering through the most debilitating of setbacks needed those around it to help rally. We needed help to rally and while they were not the only ones who provided that help, in this sports crazed city of Boston, the support of the sports world helped up get back up.

You see, within hours of the attack, the quotes of condolence had already begun to fly as #PrayForBoston soon became  the link between all these tweets and such. In Phoenix, Coyotes forward and Boston native, Shane Doan rushed to his equipment manager before his the team’s game against the Sharks and wrote the phrase “Pray for Boston” on the heel of his right skate.  As that game and many others took place the night of April 15^th, moments of silence and support were almost constant across the board. But the MLB went above and beyond. On the nights of April 15^th and 16^th, 2013, every MLB game paused during the 7^th inning stretch to sing Sweet Caroline in honor of Boston.

By Thursday of that week, Sports Illustrated devoted their entire cover to the events at the Boston Marathon placing a picture of three police officers sprinting towards the finish line, guns drawn as 74 year old runner,  Bill Iffrig pealed himself off the pavement after being knocked down by the blast. Elsewhere, the New York Yankees elected to hang a banner on the front façade of their stadium showing both the Yankees and Red Sox logos beside the words “United we Stand”.

Across the United States, the shock of the Marathon Bombing and the Watertown Shootout days later was never far from thought. But as we recovered, as we learned the names of those killed in these attacks, the sports world rose up, embodying the phrase “Boston Strong” and showing that all forms competition and rivalry are suspend when the worst of humanity shines through like it did that day in April.