Getting to the Olympics, the greatest sporting event in the world, often takes years of training and major sacrifices: of academics, social life, maybe postponement of career goals.
Then there is Matthew Dawson, an Australian field hockey player, who chose to amputate the top joint of his right ring finger rather than miss the Paris Olympics.
Dawson, 30, who also was on Australia’s Olympic team in Rio and in Tokyo, where the team won silver, seriously injured the fingertip two weeks ago. During a practice match in Perth, Australia, on the morning of July 11, another player’s hockey stick accidentally hit the finger, leaving it bleeding and partly detached, Dawson said.