2012 Summer OlympicsVideo

Here’s What Running On A Broken Leg Looks Like

Last night, we brought you the story of Manteo Mitchell, the American sprinter who finished his leg in a preliminary 4×400-meter relay race despite breaking his leg in the middle of it. As one might expect, Mitchell’s story became something of an overnight sensation, one that basically everyone is talking about this morning.

And luckily, that’s led to video of Mitchell’s sprint circulating, so you can see Mitchell doing the seemingly-impossible for yourself. How does one run on a broken leg? Not quite as well as one might otherwise, obviously, but well enough to help the U.S. qualify for the 4×400 final, which is pretty remarkable if we say so ourselves. See how the last bit of Mitchell’s leg – no pun intended, it’s just kind of unavoidable in stories about relay races – looked below, via NBC and the Today show (better quality video later, hopefully):

You know, the fact that the announcer seemed to just think Mitchell wasn’t having a great race rather than having a condition as serious as, say, a broken leg is really a credit to how well Mitchell did despite the circumstances. I’ve been fortunate enough to go through life thus far without fracturing my leg, but if I ever did, pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to run 200 meters on it. Or one inch.