Sam Kendricks is a medal winning pole vaulter and a  second lieutenant in the Army Reserve.  That in itself is enough to make him a hero of patriotic Americans.  But what he did a couple of days ago was icing on the cake.  Kendricks was in the middle of a practice run for the pole vault when he heard the National Anthem being played during a medal presentation elsewhere.

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As soon as the anthem began to play, Kendricks stopped running, threw down his pole and stood at attention until it was over.

From The Blaze:

He eventually took home the bronze in Rio, halting a dozen-year drought of no medals for the U.S. in the pole vault. Here’s what the native Mississippian had to say about standing on the podium:

They say back home, and jokingly in track circles, that if you win a medal it will change your life. I think your life is changed on the way to that medal, honestly. With all the journeys and sacrifices that you make, all the training that you do, and the people you leave at home to watch. That is what is really the value of the (medal). I’m glad I have something tangible to bring home and show for it. I know that everybody in Oxford will love to see it. But the journey, like my coach says, is the goal. Not necessarily the medals. And it’s very fun to come and compete, but not necessarily the end of all things.