Yet another story that shows how athletic heroes, contrary to popular belief (and The Moderate Voice is never mistaken for an athlete), CAN be real-life heroes.

The athlete: 21-year-old American ace Andy Roddick. His heroism: he helped fellow guests survive a fatal fire in a five-star hotel in Rome.

Three died in the fire Saturday on the top floors of the Parco dei Principi. And in the process Roddick showed that he's an athlete who truly deserves the public's heartfelt adulation...and not just for his tennis game:

Two young American women, described as being tipsy, were questioned by police after firefighters found the blaze probably started in a wastepaper basket in their room. Roddick was high above them in a huge suite with a large balcony. One guest nearby tried to shimmy down the walls on a bedsheet. He slipped and died.

Roddick's US Davis Cup teammate, Robby Ginepri, said: "We didn't find Andy for a while because he couldn't get out. He was on the sixth floor, so he stayed on the balcony of his room. "Some people were on the seventh floor, and he helped them come down because the ladder on the fire truck didn't reach that far. His balcony was enormous, so he let people come in there.

"There was a lot of smoke in the corridor and you couldn't see more than five feet ahead of you. We saw flames coming from three sides of the building. Windows were shattering." Roddick is believed to have helped usher guests to fire escapes. Marit Safin, the Russian star, was trapped for a time in a corridor with his girlfriend, but escaped.

We often make fun of athletes who are rolling in dough but want more and more, and those who are famous but not famous enough to feed their incredible egos. Yet, here's a classic case of an athlete who was focused on more than SELF.

And here is ANOTHER.