Mitch Albom

and is the kind of emotion that I think good writing contains.

It's probably the biggest reaction I ever had to a sports column I wrote.

And I write in Detroit.

I write for the Detroit Free Press.

It was not about a Detroit team or a Detroit athlete or a Detroit sports story.

It was about a person who no one in my market had ever heard of before.

I was at the Olympics.

I think it was 1992.

in Barcelona.

I had gone there early to the stadium to prepare for Carl Lewis, the famous Olympian, was running in the 100 meters that night, and I knew that it would be hard to get a seat.

So I had gone there really early to get a good seat where I could see the race, and I figured I'd just spend the afternoon there.

While I was there,

waiting, the place was half empty, and they were running these heats for the 400 meters, which is one lap around the track.

And the gun went off, a bunch of runners I'd never heard of start running around a track.

One of them pulls up late, which happens all the time.

He pulled a hamstring or something.

And he's in the lane and everyone else is running past him.

And I say to myself, oh, too bad that guy's out of it.

And all of a sudden, a man runs out of the stands and

And comes onto the field, gets onto the track, and picks this guy up and starts walking him around the track.