Glenn Cunningham - The Child Who Would Never Walk Won Olympic Medal

 

Olympian with Scarred Legs

It was the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany.  80,000 spectators filled the stadium, cheering loudly as they awaited the start of one of the feature events of those Olympics.  On the track below, the competitors who had reached the final of the 1500 meters did their last warm-up sprints before moving to the starting line.  To see these athletes moving so powerfully along the backstretch of the track, so eager to begin their race, one could only imagine that these athletes represented an Olympian ideal of physical perfection.  One runner kept his warm-up pants on until the last moment, keeping his legs as warm as possible.  At the last moment, he removed his sweat-pants.  As he pulled them off, the scars which covered his legs from top to bottom became visible.  His name was Glenn Cunningham and it was his hope that those scarred legs would propel him to an Olympic medal.

 

The Tragedy

To understand this man, we have to go back in time, twenty years earlier, to when Glenn was a young child growing up on a farm in America.  Each morning Glenn’s older brother would wake him up to do their first chore of the day.  It was to walk three kilometers from their farm to the schoolhouse and to light the fire in the school stove before the teacher and students arrived.  One winter morning, they unlocked the door of the school and cleaned out the ashes in the stove from yesterday’s fire.  They loaded the stove with wood, then picked up the can filled with kerosene and poured it over the wood.  But on this morning, somehow the container had been accidentally filled, not with kerosene, but gasoline.  As they struck a match and touched it to the wood, there was an explosion and the whole building filled with flames.  The fire burned through Glenn’s socks and trousers as Glenn fell to the floor unconscious.  People from outside rushed to help and dragged Glenn from the burning building.  When Glenn awoke, his legs were covered in bandages.  He thought of his older brother and tried to move; the pain in his legs was agonizing.  He was told that his older brother had died.

 

The damage to Glenn’s legs was extensive. The doctor considered that the safest procedure would be to amputate the legs.  Glenn’s parents said, “No.”  The doctor explained that even if his legs could be saved, he would still never be able to walk without crutches.

 

The Recovery

After several weeks, the bandages were cut from Glenn’s legs. It could now be seen just how badly damaged his legs were.  They had been burned deeply.  The right leg was no longer straight and was now six centimeters shorter than the left leg.  The left foot no longer had toes.   Glenn was given a pair of crutches.  The first day he tried to use them, he hobbled about for five minutes before collapsing into bed.  The doctor prescribed massage for Glenn’s legs to rub life back into them.  It was up to Glenn’s father to do the massage.  “It hurt like mad,” Glenn said,” especially when my father stretched my legs…When my father would get tired I’d ask my mother to do the massaging and stretching and when she couldn’t do any more I’d start doing it myself.”

 

During the next four years, Glenn used crutches and massage.  And he added one more exercise to his therapy.  He began to run.  To anyone observing him, it would have looked more like limping and hopping than running, but Glenn began to run everywhere.  He often fell down, but Glenn said, “I didn’t move ten feet without breaking into a run.  I ran and ran and ran.”

 

Olympic Medal

And now he had run all the way to the Olympic Games.  Actually, to two Olympic Games.  In 1932, he had run fourth, just missing a medal.  This time he wanted a medal.  The weather was cold and the sky was overcast, not ideal conditions for Glenn whose scarred legs still had circulation problems, and who liked his legs to be warm when he raced.  But he was ready.  He had massaged his legs and warmed up longer than anyone else in the race.  He took his place on the curved starting line of the red clay track.   The stadium became quiet as the starter raised his starting gun.  Bang!  The twelve runners shot forward, and Glenn found a place in the middle of the pack.  As they came around the curve to complete the first lap, Glenn sensed that his position was dangerous, surrounded by so many runners, so he sped up and moved past everyone to take the lead.  For the next 600 meters, Glenn ran powerfully in the lead, with his distinctive style of landing flat-footed, for unlike the other runners, Glenn could not land on the front part of his foot – this was the result of his childhood accident.  But no one was noticing this now.  Glenn was running with his chest thrust forward and he was running fast as he always ran, for this was how he liked to win his races, by pushing the pace on the next to last lap.

 

Then as Glenn ran the last curve of that third lap, Eric Ny of Sweden flew past him.  As the bell clanged to signal the beginning of the last lap, Glenn fought to hold onto second.  The roar of the crowd seemed to be growing louder with each step that Glenn took.  As they reached the backstretch, Jack Lovelock of New Zealand moved forward from Glenn’s shoulder and sprinted into the lead.  Glenn set off after him, and quickly passed Ny.  Down the backstraight and around the last turn, all the runners sprinted furiously as every spectator in the stadium stood to their feet.  Glenn could not catch Lovelock, but neither could any other runner in the world catch Glenn.  Both Glenn and Lovelock broke the world record.  The child who would never walk became the Olympic Silver Medalist in the 1500 meters.

 

 

Strengthen Your Feeble Arms and Weak Knees

In the Bible, in Hebrews 12, it says, “Endure hardship as discipline.”  This is just what Glenn did.  All that massage and stretching of the muscles, then the crutches, then the limping and hobbling and falling down, and running.  And above all, the not giving up.  The Bible goes on to say, “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.  Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”

 

A Bigger Love & Example

After Glenn finished his athletic career, he and his wife bought a large piece of land and built a home.  Then Glenn traveled around and wherever he went, he told people that if they knew of a child who was in trouble or who had problems, they could send that child to his home.  And children began coming to his home.  Children that nobody else wanted.  Children whose parents had abandoned them.  Children whose parents had abused them.  And Glenn and his wife welcomed each child, one at a time, into their home.  And in their home, each child found acceptance, and love from a man who believed that no matter what hardship you face, you never give up.  Some of those children stayed with Glenn and his wife a few weeks or months, others stayed years.  It turned out to be thousands of children that Glenn helped.  Those children followed in Glenn’s footsteps, which is what the Bible says, “Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”  Because Glenn didn’t give up on life, he, in turn, was able to help many others.  They were the ones who also needed healing and found it by following in Glenn’s footsteps.

 

“Endure hardship as discipline.  No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.  Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.  Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”