In the 1968 Mexico City Olympic games, a young African runner from Tanzania, named John Stephen Akhwari, would compete in the last event of the games - the 26 mile, 385 yard marathon. Although he would ultimately finish last, nearly an hour behind the rest of the runners, he would nonetheless finish the race and in doing so deliver a finish that will be remembered long after the winner has been forgotten. He did all of this in spite of taking a bad fall early in the race. After he fell he got up and carried on anyway, running on a badly injured leg and knowing full well that he was then out of the competition. The other runners reached the finish line nearly an hour before Akhwari would finally approach the stadium. The stadium, by this time, was nearly empty. Yet, when Akhwari entered the stadium the crowd rose to their feet and cheered. Photographers scrambled to set up cameras they had long stowed away, barely managing to capture one of the greatest finishes in Olympics history.

After the race a reporter questioned Akhwari - "Why did you go on, you knew you couldn't win, why didn't you just quit?"
Looking puzzled by this question Akhwari paused for a moment, and then relied simply: "I don't think you understand."

"My people did not send 5000 miles to start the race, they sent me 5000 miles to FINISH they race!"