Watch her. There is so little time left, and a medal is on the line. The United States women's rugby sevens team is down by five points—a single try/touchdown—which they've just allowed Australia to score with very little time left. Australia missed the two-point kick after scoring, so there is a little hope of a regulation win, but not much. Team USA are the underdogs, and this is the underdoggiest place to be: stuck on their final possession, with their back up against their own try zone, and needing to score. If they can make it the full 100 meters and place the ball on the ground in the try zone, there's a bronze medal waiting for them.
There are nine seconds left on the clock, and here she is: Alex Sedrick. Her friends call her Spiff.
She catches the ball a body-length from her own goal line, cradles it softly and tucks it in to her armpit. Here is the first Aussie defender. She is nothing to Sedrick, who palms her head and pushes her to the ground, sneaking her feet out of the defender's grasp. Two steps and two more defenders are upon her. It should be over here. Their hands seek the ball; they try to strip it from her. This is their mistake, because she does not stop.
In real time, you can barely see what she does. But in slow motion, if you watch it again and again, you can see her legs engage, pushing away from the ground. She ignores the defenders entirely, and then they are gone.
She is through them! She is running! Once, twice, thrice, she looks back over her shoulder. Again, again, again, she looks. But they cannot catch her. They are not even close. She breaks away, the goal line ahead of her, and she is racing toward it. She dives, her body flat in the air inches above the ground still as the ball touches down.
The game is tied.
It is not over, but also it is. Both teams burst into tears on the sidelines. It's okay if that throat tightness creeps up, if you begin to feel pressure in the corner of your eyes for a sport you don't entirely understand. You don't even need to know that the U.S. women have never earned a rugby medal before. They have done it now. They deserve your emotion, your support, your pride.
She kicks the ball through the uprights! They win 14-12! Team USA Rugby wins bronze!
