Monday marks the 10th Boston Marathon since the bombings of 2013, and that’s prompted a lot of looking back at that moment. One of the most notable came on ESPN’s SportsCenter this weekend, with a SC: Featured segment from correspondent Chris Connelly and producer Dan Arruda. That segment covers the tributes to Martin Richard, who, at eight, was the youngest of the three people killed in those bombings. Ten years later, his friends from his Dorchester neighborhood are coming together to run the marathon in his honor:
10 years ago, 8-year-old Martin Richard was among the three killed in the Boston Marathon bombing.
His friends from their Boston neighborhood will honor his memory by running together in the race on Monday. pic.twitter.com/22yWmhPoPu
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 16, 2023
The whole feature is well worth a watch, and it poignantly illustrates the wider context of those bombings and how they affected Boston. This is far from the first tribute to Richard, either; there have been parks and buildings dedicated to him, and his brother ran the marathon in his honor last year. But there’s something special about this group coming together for this, especially with 2023 marking the first year Richard would have been 18 and eligible to run the marathon himself.
The comments from Richard’s friends of “It became our dream,” “Wearing his name on my back is going to be super special,” and “I’m sure he’d be right alongside us, and he’d probably run it a lot faster than me too” help to illustrate how much this means to them. And this means a lot to Martin’s father Bill, too, who says “I’m really happy for them, for these kids to come together and be part of something bigger than themselves. I’m going to probably cry my eyes out.”
Connelly also spoke about this story on the ESPN Daily podcast this week:
A lot of the time in sports, it’s the professional athletes and teams that get the most coverage, and that’s understandable. But some of the most remarkable and inspirational stories come from well outside those realms. ESPN found a good one here, and did a great job of spotlighting it.
[SportsCenter on Twitter]
