“I thought this would blow over in a day or two,” Vogel said, “but it kind of blew up.”
Just four days earlier, when her name was little known outside of Champaign County, Vogel won a state championship in the 1,600-meter run. An hour later, she finished last in the 3,200 after stopping to pick up and help a competitor across the finish line. Arlington sophomore Arden McMath had collapsed 20 yards from the finish.
Damon Christen, of FinishTiming.com, posted a photo of the moment to Facebook and Twitter within 10 minutes of the end of the race. He recognized the significance of the moment.
“Wait till you hear about this,” he texted a friend. “This thing’s going to go viral.”
He was right. Vogel’s split-second decision has inspired people around the world.
By Wednesday afternoon, a video clip of the finish, filmed by a former West Liberty runner, Heather Bumbalough, had received more than 2,500,000 views on YouTube.
“I wasn’t surprised by what she did,” Bumbalough said. “When I saw her coming around the corner, after Arden fell, I was just thinking, ‘She’s going to help.’ Then it crossed my mind she could get disqualified. Then I thought, ‘Oh, no, it’s Megan; she’s still going to do it.’ ”
Christen’s first thought when he saw what happened was that both runners would be disqualified, and that is the rule, said OHSAA track and field administrator Dale Gabor.
“What people need to understand is underlying that whole rule of aiding a runner is the assumption that when you aid a runner you give them an advantage,” Gabor said.
“In this particular case, there was no advantage gained by anyone.”
Vogel and McMath appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, and Vogel was on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday.
“It’s been pretty incredible,” Vogel said. “I’ve been getting up at 5 in the morning to get ready for the different news shows. I’ve got over 300 friend requests on Facebook.”
USA Today and “NBC Nightly News” have reported the story. The Daily Mail in London, England, reported on its website about the “heartwarming picture that inspired millions.”
Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host, referenced Vogel Monday and used her story to launch into a discussion about the “decline of American competitiveness.”
The vast majority of the reactions have been positive, though just to be safe, Vogel took her Twitter feed private.
Ann Vogel, Meghan’s mom and coach, said the school had gotten a call from someone in Uganda who was inspired by the story, and a soldier in Afghanistan promised to fly a flag over their unit on Meghan’s birthday in August and bring it home for her.
While the story has taken on a life of its own around the world, it has special meaning in West Liberty, a small town with a rich history in track and cross country. It might be the smallest town in the state with its own running shoe store, the Big Orange Shoe Shop.
Amy Ludlow Pratt, a former runner at Graham who now lives in West Liberty, went to Saturday’s state meet specifically to watch the West Liberty runners who have inspired her and her 7-year-old son Andrew, a budding runner.
“Young kids see older kids like Meghan and the other Big Orange runners running around town or at Lion’s Park every day,” Pratt said.
“So it’s easy to get into that same routine and to want to win races like they do.”
After Saturday’s race, Pratt went home and explained to her son what had happened.
“When I told him the story about Meghan’s big day,” Pratt said, “he said she was like Lightning McQueen helping The King cross the finish line in (the animated movie) ‘Cars.’ ”
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