“What was in my mind was, I had to get a gold medal,” Miller said. Felix, who had come across the finish line upright, was soon lying on the track for an extended period, too, as she tried to recover. Prandini also fell forward at the finish, and, like Miller, she said her dive had not been intentional. The finish order is determined by when a runner’s torso crosses the line, and the photo at the finish Monday night left no room for debate. In 2008, in the men’s 400, the American sprinter David Neville dived — intentionally, in his case — across the finish line to snatch the bronze medal away from another sprinter.

Source: New York Times August 16, 2016 14:03 UTC