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The Tokyo Olympics have come and gone, although this time we only have a three-year wait until Paris picks up the baton.

We’ll look back fondly on the heroics of Tatjana Schoenmaker and Bianca Buitendag, while Jamaica has four gold medallists to celebrate, as well as a silver and four bronzes.

One of those gold medallists is 31-year-old Hansle Parchment, who won the men’s 110-metre hurdles.

Years of hard work, training, and dedication almost came to nothing, though, when Parchment showed up at the wrong venue.

Below via The Guardian:

Parchment feared he would miss last Thursday’s 110m hurdles final when he got on the wrong coach and ended up at what he believes was one of the aquatics venues. All the official Tokyo 2020 cars were booked and taking a bus back to the Olympic village and then another to the stadium would have left him struggling to make the start of the final.

Enter a woman we know only as Tiana, who gave him money to catch a taxi to the correct venue.

The rest, as they say, is history, and before he left Tokyo, Parchment returned to find the volunteer who helped him out:

Always be kind to each other 🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/j1XvHRta4G

— Hansle Parchment, OLY (@ParchmentHansle) August 7, 2021

On this occasion, I think we can excuse him filming and uploading the video of his kind deed in return.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, said steps are being taken to find the woman and reward her, reports The Gleaner:

“It is selfless what she did; one would not know what the outcome would have been,” he stated.

Bartlett said he was moved to invite the lady to Jamaica, where she will be hosted by his ministry team.

“No matter where in the world she is, we want to reciprocate the kindness shown to one of our own,” he said.

Here’s hoping contact has been made, and she gets to visit Jamaica (the fifth most successful country in Tokyo, if worked out by population) in due course.

After winning bronze in 2012, Parchment missed 2016 through injury. He wasn’t expected to win gold this time around but ran a season-best time to secure his place in the history books.

And Tiana’s – don’t forget about her.

[sources:guardian&gleaner]