Jeff Henderson by the narrowest of margins won the gold medal in the long jump last Saturday at the Rio Olympics, making a good on a promise to his mother, who is battling Alzheimer’s.
Henderson returned home to McAlmont, Ark., earlier this week and in a touching moment, was able to share his gold medal with his mother during a visit to his boyhood home.
It was an emotional moment as @Jeffery_henders sees his mom for the 1st time, bringing gold home for her. #ARnews pic.twitter.com/Y7oBrnP1ot
— Isabella Moller (@imollertv) August 17, 2016
“I want to put the medal on your head but I don’t want to hurt you,” Henderson told his mother on Wednesday while setting it on her bed, via arkansasmatters.com.
Henderson, 27, beat the silver medal-winner, South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga, by a mere .01 meters with a jump of 8.38 meters. But all that matters is he made good on his promise to bring home a gold medal for his mother.
“The medal is just for her,” he said, via 11alive.com. “She got sick when I was 17, 18 years old. It was hard for me to do that, and leave her there. Everything I did was for her. It was for God, for her and my family.”
Henderson knew well beforehand that it would be a bittersweet moment delivering the promised gold medal to his mom.
“My mom can’t be here, she has ALZ. When I place that #gold in her hands, I’ll be crying.” Olympian @Jeffery_henders had won our s. #ENDALZ
— Alzheimer’s Assoc. (@alzassociation) August 16, 2016
It’s obviously been a whirlwind of a week for Henderson, during which he’s gone through an unbelievable range of emotions. But shortly after winning gold, he already was setting a new goal. And of course, it involved his beloved mother.
Next on my list is to give my dad what he wanted all along . A brand new house for him and my mom
— Jeff Henderson (@Jeffery_henders) August 14, 2016
Awesome.