Agreed, it's a lot harder to feel sympathy for this guy while watching him shove another runner aside. Pretty classless; he could easily have gone around him.....welcome to New $#%#& York.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Wow. I thought it would be one of those accidental-looking maybe-he-tripped kind of things but holy crap, he really shoves that person the hell out of the way. I wouldn't be surprised if that other person fell down.

What a prick.

What a dick, It looks like the other person was having a moment after finishing...

Dick move on his part. His overall story is inspiring but shoving the guy out of the way like that so he can have his moment is inexcuseable.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I think we have a winner for ass of the year.

I'm a paramedic, worked at a large metropolitan fire department for almost 10 years. This is typical of firemen. They are so into cock measuring and bravado it makes me sick sometimes. I'm not surprised at all he would did that. If it was me that got shoved I would have got in his face. I mean, he's pretty much crippled. I could probably take him.

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-All You Haters Suck My Balls-

LOL. It's just too bad that his great stroy is now overshadowed by something so stupid and senseless.

Great story but ... I wonder if he has seen that video ... ! :0P

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http://www.arthelenegirard.com/
Painting training always ...

I consider Matt a good friend. I can't see this video (work filter) and from the sounds of it couldn't defend him on this point anyway. But I will say that he's a good man. We could go back and forth on whether his charity work and chosen profession outweigh being a jerk in this situation; I'm not sure anyone would come out satisfied.

In the interest of not being kneejerk douches ourselves, could we all just reign in the personal attacks a bit? One stupid move doesn't make a person an evil man hell bent on pushing over anyone stealing his glory.

Again, I can't see or defend this shove, but I've known Matt to be a rather generous and gracious person in the past. If I were going to guess, I'd say that the excitement of struggling through 3 years of pain, surgery, pins, colostomy bags, and doubt left him a little excited at the finish line. Worthy of scorn? Sure. Worthy of some of the names being tossed about here? Probably not.

I don't think anyone is saying he is evil. Just that his story is overshadowed now by this stupid act. Wait until you see it, I was pretty shocked.

Watched the video, at first, not quite as bad as everyone makes it out to be. The guy that was pushed stopped running and was standing still right before the finish.

But the fact that Matt then stops and does pushups at the finish line does indicate he thinks a different set of rules apply to him.

Class is really about doing the right thing even when you aren't in the best spot or when you don't think anyone is watching. A person's true self comes through in these situations. This happened to be caught on video tape, and it isn't pretty.

No excuses. 9 out of 10 people in the same situation wouldn't have pushed the guy in the first place.

Nobody is perfect, but people's actions stem from their character. Your friend showed a distinct episode of narcicism.

And I suppose the rest of us have done so from time to time also. But still...

Thats pretty messed up ,, talk about being full of yourself! That guy he shoved could of overcome he's own battles to get to the finish line just like so many others in the race and just as deserving of having their finihing moment, who knows, but its all about this tough guy. And yeah the pushups are the icing on the cake,, real class act!

Am I the only one who isn't surprised by this? When I read the article he came out back then as rather self centered. I'm not saying he's a bad guy and that him pushing another person at the finish line is the end-all-be-all of jerkdome. I forget the specifics, but he seemed to continue to carry a chip on his shoulder about the original accident even at the time of publication; I think he made comments against the transportation strike and that being the cause of his accident. He was hit by a substitute driver of a bus when he was bike commuting. I'm sure it's not easy to let things go when they have had life altering consequences, but he definitely still has anger towards it all. I'd love to say that I wouldn't; but it's not easy.

What he did wasn't that bad; if he inspired you, don't let this ruin it. Could he be a better role model? Could you?

Tell your buddy Matt to come here and explain his actions. I'm reasonably sure the guy in blue that he pushed didn't keep him from BQing right?

I was in the Air Force for 7 years between active duty and reserves, and ran ambulances civilian as well. I've saved a few lives, delivered a few babies, etc. Since I've done all that good stuff, does that mean I have carte blanche for a few dick acts? I can now go push over someone with a cane and it's ok?

Who knows how much the accident and experiences changed him from what he was, but this was a classless move. He then compounded it by grandstanding the finish, rather than letting it speak on its own merits. Not to mention all the people who then had THEIR finish line moment possibly ruined by him and his entourage taking up most of the finish chute. Yeah, it's a heartwarming story, but those are a dime a dozen.

John

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Top notch coaching: Francois and Accelerate3 | Follow on Twitter: LifetimeAthlete |

D,

Sorry to offend your buddy, but I was in a bad mood this morning.

To clarify, I did read the article a couple of months ago and I've remembered it ever since. Anytime I think my life is hard or I'm suffering on a run I go back to his story and realize I've got things pretty good, no matter how bad they seem. That's why it was a huge disappointment to see the video. In the article he talks about the hardships and suffering he did throughout the race and how inspired he was to finish and determined and so on. That's why I was disappointed by the video.

The video shows him and an entourage of about 6-7 people coming to the finish line with him struggling in the center. Off to his left, about 2-3 feet and not in front of him in any way is another finisher almost stopped but looking to the side and waving frantically at someone in the crowd. Matt takes 1-2 steps left and gives the guy a forceful shove. The problem I see is that he wasn't in Matt's way and he was shoving him out of the way of his entourage so they could all finish together. Then he drops, on the finish line, and proceeds to do push ups while his whole entourage stands surrounding him blocking a large portion of the finish. Again, it would be bad enough had he just shoved the guy out of the way if the guy was in front of him, but to do it to make room for his pacers was low in my book.

In the article he talked about his determination to get to the line and the support of his running pals doing the race/pacing him and that nothing was going to stop him. I guess literally he meant nothing was going to get in his way, including some poor sap just trying to celebrate their own personal finish.

K

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I don't think that is necessary. Actions really do speak louder than words.

Not to mention that there were 1000s of witnesses, and this is all on video, and they are wearing FDNY shirts. Way to represent your department. It's this type of behaviour that breeds contempt for public service among citizens. Absolutley inexcusable.

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-All You Haters Suck My Balls-

f'ing Sonicwall
wont let me look at the video- gives me yet another "adult/mature content" alert
all i wanna see is a douchebag public figure shove an innocent athlete, and my work computer tells me to get my head outta the gutter

As someone who knows Matt let me just tell you all that have decided to judge him based on this video that he is the most generous, nice, helpful, funny, inspiring person you are ever going to meet.

I saw Matt on the 59th Street bridge during the marathon and got goosebumps and tears in my eyes to see him doing the marathon. I remember when he was in the hospital and how he looked after the accident and how he struggled to walk. So to see him back out there on the course was the most inspiring thing I have ever seen while racing and I've seen the Hoyts competing with me and I even ran a bit with a guy in full on marine fatigues and boots during Kona.

It's really easy to sit at a computer and decide you know Matt because of something you think you saw in a video but trust me, for all of you with even the slightest negative feelings, you don't know him. He is an inspiration and he is trying to help others through his foundation. He's not a good guy, he's a great guy. But he isn't perfect. None of us are. I have been known to say some truly stupid things when I am all hopped up at the end of a race, especially the good races.

He had a hell of a struggle to get through that marathon and lets give him the benefit of the doubt that there is more going on than we can see sitting at our computers. One action that we don't have details for except an angle on a video, doesn't change his story or his struggle and what he's overcome and the inspiration we can all take from it.

Guess you didn't pass the fireman's test, huh?[/quote] Maybe he failed the douchery part of the test :-P