The men’s champion of the 2013 Boston Marathon returned his winner’s medal to Mayor Thomas Menino on Sunday to honor the city and those killed and injured in the bombings near the finish line of one of the world’s top running events.
“Sport holds the power to unify and connect people all over the world,” Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia told the crowd through a translator. “Sport should never be used as a battleground.”
“Let me tell you: As mayor of this great city for the last several years, I have never seen Boston come together like it has after the attacks,” Menino told the crowd. “Thank you for making Boston stronger.”
A moment of silence paid tribute to the three victims killed in the April 15 bombings and to Sean Collier, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who was shot and killed April 18 in a search for the suspects.
“The feeling here is a little weird,” said Jon Everitt, an MIT student who lives in Cambridge. He said the bombings are “definitely in the back of your head.”
via NBC News