Nine Gold Medals Summary ICSE Class 10 English

Nine Gold Medals (Summary)

The poem ‘Nine Gold Medals’ is written by the American rock vocalist, David Roth. This poem shows the picture of human cooperation and compassion. It is inspired from a special Olympic event where nine different abled athletes take part. The event is a race. All the other runners stopped  running after seeing one runner falling down. They went back and helped that runner in standing up. Then all of them took each other’s hand in hand and walked together. They all received a gold medal for their compassion and empathy.

Summary of Nine Gold Medals by David Roth

In the first stanza we see how the athletes prepare themselves to participate in the Special Olympic event. They have all come from different parts of the world and represent different countries. There are three medals- gold, silver and bronze. It also tells how the athletes have rigorously trained themselves for winning a medal in the event.

To cheer the participants, a large crowd of audience is present. They cheer on the athletes throughout the day and enjoy the events merrily. The last event arrives finally. It is one of the most eye-catching and awaited events.

The race begins with the explosion of the pistol. The runners on their tracks run ahead. However, an unexpected incident happens. The shortest athlete falls on his knees after stumbling and staggering.

This stanza says how the differently abled athletes feel when they see him falling. It is very frustrating after being trained vigorously for months. He sees his dreams crashing down when he falls. Due to pain and frustration he cries out.

Further, the ending of this scene is not here. After he falls down, a strange thing happens. All the other athletes who are running ahead of him stop in their tracks one by one and return. They do it just to help him to stand him on his feet. They do not see all their vigorous training and hardwork of all these years at this very point.

They pick him up and join their hands together. They start walking towards the finishing line together. They reduce their hundred meter race to a walk. However,it was far better from the original one. Because through this, we got to see the best demonstration of teamwork, sportsman spirit and human compassion and cooperation.

We finally come to the end where we see that the athletes have ended the hundred meter race together by keeping their hand in hand. They all win gold medals. Everyone gets it because they deserve it. They all stand together with their smiling faces under the banner of ‘Special Olympics’.

The audience was touched by this act of the athletes. The audience smiled heartily with the athletes. The athletes conveyed a great lesson as well as a very special message. The poet feels that this poem alone cannot do justice to this act of the athletes.

This poem tells the readers about the great spirit of sportsmanship and compassion. It also encourages about kindness and empathy.