Selfless hero: Filipino surfer opts to save competitor from drowning instead of winning gold in Southeast Asian Games!

Come read the tale of Roger Casugay!

And have you ever done anything heroic or, at the very least, imagined yourself doing something heroic? I think it is human nature to picture ourselves at the very nexus of some colossal event. A hurricane blowing through town and access to Ol’ Doc Marten’s place has been washed out but we, fearlessly, grab our surfboards, paddle in and save the day. A child has climbed too high into a tree but we, bravely, climb up afterward, put the quivering youngster on our strong backs and, again, save the day.

Yes, we would all be great assets in/around any tragedy or high-stakes moment but what if there was also a gold medal on the line? What if saving the day also meant losing? Would we be that quick, that… selfless?

And let us meet true hero Roger Casugay from the Philippines. Let us study an example of good, proper decision making.

Filipino surfer Roger Casugay earned the Philippines its first-ever gold medal in surfing at the Southeast Asian Games today (Dec. 8). But even before winning the men’s longboard competition, the 25-year-old athlete was already heralded as the event’s hero for an unselfish act during a semi-final round last week.

Casugay was leading a one-on-one race against Indonesian surfer Arip Nurhidayat Friday (Dec. 6) when he noticed that Nurhidayat broke his ankle leash and was swept by towering waves at Monaliza Point, La Union in northern Philippines. Typhoon Kammuri (called Tisoy locally) has made conditions challenging at the 30th edition of the biennial sporting event.

Casugay, a surfing instructor, paddled back to Nurhidayat and helped him back to shore. Spectator Jefferson Ganuelas described the scene on Facebook, noting Casugay “rescued him not minding the ongoing race for gold medal.”

Sports fans—including many Indonesians on Twitter—are calling Casugay a hero, a title he’s uneasy with. “No, I’m not a hero,” he said to Rappler. “I didn’t really save him from drowning. He is a good swimmer. I just calmed him down.”

“We have a brotherhood in surfing,” he told CNN. “If someone needs help, you go. I didn’t think about winning and [am] just relieved that we were both safe. We were overjoyed when we reached the shore.”

Well, I guess the selfless hero won a gold medal anyhow and see? We should always be very dubious when served up a theoretical either/or. We should point to Roger Casugay and say, “Both.”