The moment drove her to her knees. The tears streaked down her face. Her spirit soared.

Ngoy Marijo Bibiche hadn’t dared dream about this. Just getting to Los Angeles for the Special Olympics World Games was supposed to be its own victory. The Democratic Republic of Congo was making its first appearance in the games, and its track team of four athletes had formed just five months ago under Bibiche, their coach. When they landed in Los Angeles last week, they didn’t even have a pair of new track shoes between them.

But they did eventually get running shoes. And on Wednesday, a pair of athletes from the DRC picked up silver and bronze medals in those shoes and became the first-ever Olympic medalists from the African nation.

Bibiche stood and wiped her eyes.

“When we left home, it was just about carrying the flag here,” Bibiche said. “This has become much more.”

Mardochee Lufuluabo Mutombo won the first medal, a bronze in his division of 200-meter runners. A few races later, Divin Tshibangu Mbaya, 16, won silver in his 200-meter race, edging out an athlete from Chinese Taipei by just over a tenth of a second.

• PHOTOS: Track and Field events at the Special Olympics World Games

Mbaya, a quiet boy, said he was nervous before the race, but once he headed into the final leg of the run and was ahead, he was thinking just one thing.

“I wanted to win,” he said.

Veronique Dozier, the team’s delegation liaison, wept when Mbaya walked to the medal stand to have the silver medal draped around his neck by WWE star William Regal. He held up his arms and smiled before walking off the stand and high-fiving fans and athletes from other nations gathered to watch the ceremony.

“In our eyes, it’s gold,” Dozier said. “They’re all gold.”

Global ambassador

The DRC made it to the games through one of the nation’s most famous citizens — retired NBA star Dikembe Mutombo. His foundation, along with a grant from Google, funded the team’s trip to the United States because he wanted to see athletes with intellectual disabilities from his home country have a chance to compete in the Olympics.

Mutombo is a global ambassador for the Special Olympics and walked with the delegation at the Opening Ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He’d stayed with the athletes, but had to leave for South Africa on Wednesday.

He found out about the team’s medals while in the air via text message.

Alicia Smith, who works with the foundation, showed the group his text message.

“Congratulations,” Mutombo wrote. “I’m so happy for the boys.”

Sara Mulekia, 14, stood next to Mutombo the track athlete — who is no relation to the former NBA star — and held his medal. Her small fingers traced over the words etched into it. Dozier said with the two boys winning medals, it will motivate the two girls — Mulekia and Deborah Mukendi Kabanga — to now try and win medals in races today and Friday.

Mbaya smiled as Mulekia touched the bronze medal. As other athletes and World Games volunteers walked by him, Mutombo fist-bumped and high-fived almost everyone that came within reach of his long, lanky arms.

Bibiche said the two boys had gotten up early Wednesday and made their way alone by bus to practice before their races. She said she was proud of their dedication to working out and said they will travel home and the medals should inspire other athletes in the DRC to try for future World Games.

The nation doesn’t have a dedicated Special Olympics program in place and it faces challenges of widespread poverty and one of the lowest life-expectancy rates in the world. Prior to coming to the World Games for the first time, the country of 72 million had been a regular competitor at the Olympic Games dating back to 1968.

But it had never won a medal in any of them.

National pride

The Special Olympics World Games doesn’t emphasize national pride — athletes don’t walk in during the Opening Ceremony under country’s flags — but during the track and field events, nationalism was on full display.

There was an athlete from Senegal who pounded on his drum in the stands while fellow runner Pape Diouf finished second in the 400-meter run. Kenyans waved their flag and chanted for Everlyne Mokeira Ogechi during her 400-meter run.

Daniel Wolff, 21, ran for gold in his 400-meter race and his parents — wearing Great Britain pride and sounding it with matching accents — watched nervously from the stands as he trailed in the back before making a big sprint down the finish to win.

Paul Wolff, his father, said it was emotional because his great-grandfather was Fredrick Wolff — a gold medalist in 4×400 meter relay during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

“Running 400 meters like his great-grandpa — and winning gold?” Wolff said. “He’d be so proud.”

With medals being presented for the first time in track and field Wednesday, there was national pride everywhere — even if national anthems weren’t played. They waved flags and clapped. They cheered and high-fived. They smiled and danced — some even in new pairs of track shoes.