I can see this going viral. Kids on the cross country team excusing their poor performance with "Sorry, coach. I was holding back for Meb."
Or "I could have run faster, but I wanted to make sure an American won".
In fact, I don't usually go for cute stuff, but I think it would be kind of cool to see back-of-the-pack marathoners wearing T-shirts with "I'm holding back for Meb" logos.