Terence Crawford’s 7-year-old daughter loses shoe, comes back to win track race in heroic effort

Terence “Bud” Crawford — who has yet to lose a fight in his professional career (38-0, 29 KOs) — is in the midst of an astonishing rise in the boxing world, but it’s the talent of his daughter, Talaya, which currently has our jaws on the floor.

On Saturday, 7-year-old Talaya ran out of her shoe on the starting blocks of a 200-meter sprint at her AAU track meet at Northwest High School in Omaha, Nebraska. While the inopportune start to the race would have been enough to make a less-determined individual give up, Talaya had different plans.

After doubling back and calmly putting her shoe back on as the rest of the pack sprinted away, she orchestrated a comeback effort worthy of mention alongside the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ 2016 NBA Finals victory and the New England Patriots‘ Super Bowl LI win — that’s only slight hyperbole.

Talaya closed the gap between her and the other runners, eventually overtaking the leader (read: demolishing the field) to achieve a comfortable first-place finish.

The 34-year-old boxer was understandably proud of his daughter’s show of perseverance, taking to Instagram to write, “This is the definition of not giving up, heart and grit. She let it all hang out even when she was hit with adversity.”

To quote Nelly’s 2004 banger, “It’s the heart of a champion.”