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Doing the impossible
By Mitch Gelman, CNNSI.com AUSTRALIA, Sydney -- Gary Hall, Jr., hustled past reporters over to a group standing at the pool deck. He hugged his mother and father, his siblings, fiancée and his doctor. Hall let them hold the gold medal that nobody -- including Hall - really believed he could win. "I'm tired," said Hall, who was diagnosed with a severe form of diabetes a year-and-a-half ago. "I gotta get back. I'm swimming tomorrow." But before Hall returned to the Olympic Village to take in the carbohydrates needed to control his blood sugar and to rest for the 4 x 100 medley relay, the diabetes-suffering-gold-medallist wanted to share the moment with the people closest to him. He had just finished first in a dead heat in the 50-meter freestyle with teammate Anthony Ervin, defeating perhaps the strongest group of sprinters to ever compete in the race known as the "splash and dash." "Gary was exhausted, but was so excited and exhilarated," said Elizabeth Peterson, Hall's fiancée. "We were hardly able to talk." No words could express the sheer brilliance of the moment, said Hall's father, Gary, Sr., who swam in three Olympic Games, but never brought home a gold medal. "That was the gold that I didn't get," Gary, Sr., said after the race. "It was the gold Gary got -- for Gary, not for me." Hall's father said he had never talked to his son about how much he had wanted to win gold. He was afraid that would put too much pressure on Gary, Jr. "I survived not winning a gold medal," he said. "I'm sure Gary would've, too. But I'm so glad he got it." For Hall, the most important preparation for his race came around lunchtime, according to his doctor, endocrinologist Anne Peters, director of the Clinical Diabetes Program at the University of Southern California. That is when he injected himself with the humalog insulin 10, the injection needed to maintain his blood sugar level. It is a ritual that he completes between four- and eight-times-a-day, as much a part of his routine as lifting weights and punching a speed bag to improve his strength and quickness. For Peters, who held the medal after the race, her patient's victory was about more than swimming. It was a validation of an approach to practicing medicine. "Other doctors said he couldn't do it," she said. "But the way I treat diabetes is to let the treatment fit someone's life, not to let the disease determine the treatment." The other doctors believed that an illness that impedes the process of getting fuel to the muscles was career-ending for a swimmer. Peters refused to accept this. "He did what everyone thought was impossible," she said. "He was so proud and as happy as I've ever seen him."
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