Illinois native Ryan Held draws attention after crying during Olympic medal ceremony

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First-time Olympian and Springfield native Ryan Held did the one thing that could momentarily take cameras off Michael Phelps.

Held was part of the United States men's 4x100 meter relay team that won gold on the second night of competition at the Rio Games, swimming the third leg — right after Phelps — and helping the Americans defeat the rival French.

It was Phelps' first gold medal of these Olympics and his stunning 19th career gold, but the cameras had to shift away from the man who might be the greatest Olympic athlete of all-time as Held began crying while the national anthem played during the medal ceremony.

"I've heard the national anthem plenty of times before, and I've received awards before as they've played the national anthem. But something — this was different," Held said in an interview Monday morning on "Today." "The emotions kind of manifested themselves on the podium, and the tears just started rolling."

Held's emotions were entirely representative of the Olympic dream so many chase, and while Phelps has stood to hear the "Star Spangled Banner" 19 times over five Olympics, Held is a 21-year-old kid experiencing a dream come true for the first time.

Not bad for the Sacred Heart Griffin alum in his first international competition.

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