Abbott on cheering audience: 'I had to finish for them'

Published Feb. 13, 2014 11:31 a.m. ET

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Surely, this isn't quite what Jeremy Abbott was expecting from his Sochi Olympic experience. 

The Sochi crowd, already sobered by the news that their hometown hero Evgeni Plushenko had withdrawn from the men's individual competition, witnessed Abbott, an American, fall badly on his quad attempt and crash into the outer boards. 

"I literally hesitated one millisecond as I was going into the quad, and that was the result," Abbott explained to NBC's Andrea Joyce. 

And after a tense moment where Abbott lay on the ice, motionless, he got back up and finished his routine, to the appreciation of the audience. 

Later, he said it was the crowd's cheers that got him to move on. 

"The second I stood up and the crowd started screaming, I had to finish," Abbott said. "I had to finish it for them." 

"My personal story has always been about perseverance," Abbott said.

Back on his feet: Abbott salutes an appreciative audience.

And while it's perhaps not the Olympic story he wanted, it did make quite an impression for those watching. Here's a rundown of what people had to say on Twitter.

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