CHAPTER 7
THE OLYMPICS

If professional team sports in the United States epitomize the corporatization of athletics, the Olympics, at least in theory, exemplify the opposite: global goodwill and celebration that surround the pursuit of athletic excellence for its own sake. This does not, however, diminish the fact that vast sums of money change hands via the Olympics. Nor does it prevent the pursuit of these vast sums, or political grandstanding, from sometimes overshadowing the Olympic ideal.

The XXVIII Olympiad took place over seventeen days in August 2004. These Summer Olympics were held in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of Olympic athletic events. According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in "Olympic Games" (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/index_uk.asp), 10,625 athletes representing 201 countries competed in 28 sports. Medals were awarded in 301 separate events. The 2008 summer games will take place in Beijing, China. These games will feature 302 medal events, one more than in the 2004 Athens games. Table 1.5 in Chapter 1 shows the list of Olympic sports as of the 2004 summer games and the 2006 winter games.

The winter games are much smaller than the summer games. For example, at the 2006 winter games in Turin, Italy, the IOC (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=2&OLGY=2006) reports that there were 2,508 athletes from 80 countries. They competed in eighty-four total events in seven sports.

The IOC regularly reviews which sports are to be included in the Olympic games. A number of factors are taken into consideration, most prominently popularity and cost. For example, beach volleyball made its Olympic debut in 1996. Snowboarding was added to the winter games program in 1998. The IOC has also decided to eliminate baseball and softball as of 2012. The Olympic Charter limits the number of sports that can take place at the Olympics; therefore, sports must be cut to accommodate the addition of new ones. In "Olympic Sports of the Past" (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/past/index_uk.asp), the IOC notes that sports have come and gone from the lineup over the decades, including tug-of war (1900–20), golf (1900–04), rugby (1900, 1908, and 1920–24), and polo (1900, 1908, 1920–24, and 1936). For the 2008 summer games, women's boxing was eliminated, whereas open-water swimming and women's steeplechase were added.

Before the 1996 games the Olympics sometimes included demonstration sports, the purpose of which was to showcase an emerging or locally popular sport before a global audience. Winners in these sports were not officially recognized as Olympic champions. Some of these sports, such as flat-water canoeing and kayaking, were later added as regular Olympic events at subsequent games. Winter sports that have been demonstrated include speed skiing, curling, and freestyle aerial skiing.

HISTORY OF THE OLYMPICS

In "The Ancient Olympic Games, 776 B.C.–393 A.D." (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/ancient/index_uk.asp), the IOC explains that the roots of the Olympic games are in ancient Greece. Exactly when the ancient Olympics started is unknown, but the first recorded games took place in the city of Olympia in 776 BC. The games grew in importance over the next few centuries, reaching their peak in the fifth and sixth centuries BC. By that time, they had grown from a single event—a two-hundred-yard foot race called the stadion—to twenty events spread over several days. Like today, the Greek Olympic games were held every four years.

As the Roman Empire rose to power in the region and subsequently adopted Christianity as its official religion, the Olympic games declined in stature. The games, which had always been a religious as much as an athletic celebration, were eventually outlawed in AD 393 by the emperor Theodosius (c. 346–395).

Interest in the Olympics was revived in the mid-nineteenth century, when modern archaeologists began to unearth the ruins of ancient Olympia. In 1890 the French historian and educator Pierre de Coubertin (1862–1937) developed the idea of holding an international competition of young athletes as a way to promote peace and cooperation among nations. He presented his ideas at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1894, and two years later the first modern Olympic games were held in Athens, Greece.

The IOC states in "Olympic Games" that the inaugural Olympic games of 1896 featured 241 athletes from 14 countries competing in 43 events—the largest international sporting event ever held up to that time. The event was repeated in Paris in 1900 and again in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1904. (See Table 7.1.)

Winter Olympics History

By 1908, movement toward establishing a winter version of the Olympics had begun. That year, figure skating was introduced during the summer games in London. A cluster of winter events was scheduled to be added for 1916, but the games were canceled because of the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918). When the Olympics resumed in 1920, they included figure skating and ice hockey as medal events. In "Olympic Games," the IOC indicates that over the objections of Coubertin and the organizers of an Olympic-style Scandinavian winter competition that had been held periodically since

1901, the committee approved an eleven-day International Winter Sports Week that featured Nordic skiing, speed skating, figure skating, hockey, and bobsledding in Chamonix, France, in 1924. These games were a success and were retroactively dubbed the first Winter Olympics by the IOC in 1926. The winter games took place during regular Olympic years until 1992. Beginning with the 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway, the winter games have been held every four years, alternating with the summer games. Table 7.2 shows the sites at which all the Winter Olympics have been held.

Politics and the Olympics

Coubertin's dream of a world made more peaceful through sport did not materialize. Moreover, wars and other political complications crippled the Olympic movement at several points during the twentieth century. The 1916 games were a casualty of World War I, and World War II (1939–1945) claimed the 1940 and 1944 Olympics.

Twice the Olympics have been the scene of violent acts of terrorism. In "When the Terror Began" (Sports Illustrated, August 26, 2002), Alexander Wolff states that at the 1972 summer games in Munich, West Germany, Palestinian terrorists took eleven members of the Israeli team hostage. An attempt to rescue the hostages was bungled, and as a result all eleven hostages, five terrorists, and a police officer died.

Shaila Dewan reports in "Bomber Offers Guilty Pleas, and Defiance" (New York Times, April 14, 2005) that two people were killed and 150 injured when a bomb exploded on a crowded Centennial Olympic Park at the 1996 summer games in Atlanta, Georgia. The perpetrator, Eric Robert Rudolph (1966–)—a member of a radical Christian group violently opposed to abortion and homo-sexuality—was not arrested until 2003. In 2005 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without parole.

BOYCOTTS.

Even when the Olympics have taken place on schedule, they have sometimes been used to make political statements. Boycotts have been a frequent occurrence. The IOC notes in "Olympic Games" that the 1956 games in Melbourne, Australia, were the scene of two different boycotts: by the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland in response to the Soviet Union's brutal handling of that year's Hungarian uprising; and by Egypt, Lebanon, and Iraq in protest of British and French involvement in the Suez crisis in the Middle East. Several African nations threatened to boycott the Olympics in 1968, 1972, and 1976, in protest of South African and Rhodesian racial policies. The IOC bowed to this pressure and banned South Africa and Rhodesia from participating in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics. In 1980 and 1984 the two major cold war powers traded boycotts. The United States and sixty-four other Western nations stayed home from the 1980 Olympics in Moscow in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later the Soviet Union and fourteen of its allied nations retaliated by boycotting the Los Angeles games of 1984, on the grounds that the American hosts could not guarantee their safety. In 1988 North Korea boycotted the Olympics in South Korea, arguing that the two countries should have been named co-hosts.

SCANDAL.

Christopher Clarey reports in "Despite Disputes, Games Still Glow as the Flame Dies Out" (International Herald Tribune, February 27, 2002) that in 1998 information was uncovered revealing that several members of the IOC had accepted gifts from the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics organizing committee in exchange for their site selection votes. Ten IOC members were forced off of the committee as a result, and in the aftermath of the scandal changes were made in the process for selecting host cities. Questions remain whether the reforms have really eliminated the possibility of bribery in the Olympic site selection process. An August 2004 BBC documentary, Panorama: Buying the Games (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3937425.stm), used hidden cameras and journalists posing as agents interested in securing the games for London to reveal that the IOC was still ripe for corruption.

STRUCTURE OF THE OLYMPIC MOVEMENT

The Olympics are run by a complex array of organizations known primarily by their initials. At the center of the structure is the IOC, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/ioc/organisation/index_uk.asp) is the "supreme authority of the Olympic Movement." Its role is to "promote top-level sport as well as sport for all in accordance with the Olympic Charter. It ensures the regular celebration of the Olympic games and strongly encourages, by appropriate means, the promotion of women in sport, that of sports ethics and the protection of athletes."

According to the IOC (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/if/index_uk.asp), the next layer of Olympic oversight, the International Federations (IFs), coordinates international competition within a particular sport. Track and field, for example, is governed by the International Amateur Athletics Federation. In 2007 there were twenty-eight IFs involved in the summer games and another seven that presided over sports in the winter games. These federations make all the rules that pertain to their sport and run the world championships and other international competitions within their realm. Each country that competes in a sport at the international level has a national governing body (NGB), which coordinates the sport domestically.

International Olympic Committee

The IOC (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/ioc/index_uk.asp) was created by the International Athletic Congress of Paris on June 23, 1894, convened by Coubertin, who is generally considered the father of the modern Olympic movement. The original committee in 1894 consisted of fourteen members plus Coubertin. Coubertin remained at the helm of the IOC through the 1924 Olympics. The IOC was charged with the control and development of the modern Olympic games. Membership in the IOC is limited to one member from most countries, and two members from the largest and most active member countries, or countries that have hosted the Olympics. Members must speak French or English and be citizens and residents of a country with a recognized national Olympic committee (NOC).

The IOC runs the Olympic movement according to the terms of the Olympic Charter (September 1, 2004, http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_122.pdf). The charter outlines the six Fundamental Principles of Olympism. These principles, as written in the charter, are:

1. Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.
2. The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.
3. The Olympic Movement is the concerted, organised, universal and permanent action, carried out under the supreme authority of the IOC, of all individuals and entities who are inspired by the values of Olympism. It covers the five continents. It reaches its peak with the bringing together of the world's athletes at the great sports festival, the Olympic Games. Its symbol is five interlaced rings.
4. The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play. The organisation, administration and management of sport must be controlled by independent sports organizations.
5. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.
6. Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter and recognition by the IOC.

The IOC has a maximum of 115 members, who meet at least once per year. During this session the committee elects a president for a term of eight years (renewable for another four), and an executive board, whose members serve for four years. The IOC (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/commissions/index_uk.asp) is administered by a director general, with the assistance of the directors of the IOC's various units, which include International Relations; Coordination Commissions for the Olympic Games; Finance; Marketing; Juridical; Radio and Television; and Medical.

U.S. Olympic Committee

In the United States, building a team to represent the nation at the Olympics is the responsibility of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC). Julia Cantone indicates in "General Olympic FAQ" (October 7, 2003, http://www.usolympicteam.com/19116_18922.htm) that the USOC comprises seventy-two member organizations. Thirty-nine of them are NGBs—such as USA Gymnastics and USA Track and Field—each of which supports a particular sport. Other USOC members include community- and education-based multisport organizations, U.S. Armed Forces sports, and organizations involved in sports for people with disabilities. Besides the Olympics, the USOC is the driving force for U.S. sports that are part of the Pan American Games program. The Pan American Games are an international goodwill sports competition featuring athletes from the Americas; they take place every four years in the year preceding the Olympics. In the United States the NGBs are responsible for selecting the athletes who will represent their country in their sport at the Olympics. In most events this is done at national competitions called Olympic Trials.

Besides its role in developing the U.S. Olympic team, the USOC is instrumental in U.S. cities' bids to host the Winter or Summer Olympics or the Pan American Games. The USOC may vote on and endorse a particular city's bid to serve as host. All U.S. Olympic Trial site selections also go through the USOC. According to The Business of Sports (2004), edited by Scott R. Rosner and Kenneth L. Shropshire, the USOC gets much of its funding from the IOC; in fact, 25% of the IOC's broadcast revenue ends up with the USOC. Of the money the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) will have spent for televising the Olympics between 2000 and 2008, the USOC will bank $418 million. The Business of Sports notes that the USOC also receives a large share of what the IOC takes in from corporate sponsorships—more than the other 198 NOCs combined. Besides these sources, the USOC also earns nearly $200 million per year through its own domestic sponsorships, licensing fees, and other joint ventures.

In "The Olympic Family" (1997, http://www.usagymnastics.org/organization/olympic-family.html), USA Gymnastics explains that the USOC was created as a small, informal organization in 1896 by James E. Sullivan (1860–1914), the founder of the Amateur Athletic Union. The first elected president of the USOC was Albert G. Spalding (1850–1915), a well-known sporting goods manufacturer. The committee became a formal entity, called the American Olympic Association, in 1921. The name was changed twice in the 1940s—to the United States of America Sports Federation in 1940 and to the U.S. Olympic Association (USOA) in 1945. The USOA received its federal charter as a private nonprofit corporation in 1950. The USOC took its current name in 1961.

In 1978 the USOC acquired its status as the legal coordinating body for the Olympic and Pan American Games through the passage of the Amateur Sports Act. The act also recognized the authority of the NGBs to oversee development within their own sports. In addition, the act mandated that 20% of membership and voting power within both the USOC and the sport-specific agencies be held by "recent or active" athletes. That year, the USOC moved its headquarters from New York City to Colorado Springs, Colorado.

As of 2007 the USOC operated three training centers, located in Colorado Springs; Lake Placid, New York; and Chula Vista, California. The USOC also maintains an Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Michigan, where athletes can pursue an academic degree without interrupting their training.

The Business of Sports indicates that the USOC has struggled financially in recent years, its nonprofit status notwithstanding. Its administrative costs and overhead are high, and it provides more than $80 million per year in monetary support to American athletes and NGBs. In addition, unlike most NOCs around the world, the USOC does not receive direct financial support from the government.

THE FLOW OF OLYMPIC MONEY

All the symbols, images, phrases, and other intellectual property associated with the Olympics belong to the IOC. In 2006 Marketing Fact File (July 15, 2005, http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_344.pdf), the IOC explains that the Olympic movement generates marketing revenue through five major channels: broadcasting, the Olympic Partners worldwide sponsorship program, domestic sponsorships, ticketing, and licensing. The IOC manages the first two; the others are managed by the Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) within the host country, under the IOC's direction. The IOC indicates that the total marketing revenue for the 2001–04 quadrennium was nearly $4.2 billion, up from $3.8 billion in the previous four-year period and $2.6 billion in 1993–96. The IOC reports in Marketing Report: Torino 2006 (March 29, 2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/reports/level2_uk.asp?HEAD2=176&HEAD1=8) that the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin generated another $833 million in broadcasting revenue alone, and well over $100 million more in ticket and licensing revenue.

As with the major professional sports in the United States, the biggest financial driver of the Olympics is television, with a startling growth in revenue generated through television broadcasts of the Olympics. The IOC states in the Marketing Fact File that for the Olympic cycle running from 2001 to 2004, worldwide broadcast rights netted the IOC $2.2 billion, about half of its total revenue. About three-quarters of the total came from the United States, specifically from NBC, which paid $793.5 million to broadcast the 2004 Athens Olympics. European networks contributed another 18%. The rest of the world contributed the remainder. These proportions are not likely to change for the next several years; Richard Sandomir reports in "Ebersol Proud as a Peacock over NBC and the Games" (New York Times, July 6, 2005) that as of 2005 NBC had a $4.5 billion deal to broadcast the Olympics in the United States through the 2012 games. Broadcast revenue in the previous quadrennium was $1.8 billion, and the 1993–96 total was $1.3 billion.

The Marketing Fact File reports that 49% of the broadcast rights fees for each Olympics is distributed to the OCOGs responsible for that particular Olympics. The OCOGs consist of top officials from the NOC of the host nation and other key representatives of the host city and country. The other half of the broadcast revenue goes to the Olympic movement. NBC (2007, http://www.nbcunicom/About_NBC_Universal/Company_Overview/overview02.shtml) reports that 203 million viewers watched at least some part of its broadcast of the 2004 Summer Olympics, a new record for Olympic viewing. According to the Marketing Fact File, the 2004 summer games were watched for a total of 34.4 billion viewer hours, down slightly from the 36.1 billion during the 2000 summer games. The Marketing Report: Torino 2006 states that the total viewer hours for the 2006 winter games were 10.6 billion.

A second key revenue source is the IOC's corporate sponsorship program, known officially as the Olympic Partners (TOP) program. The IOC (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/facts/programme/sponsors_uk.asp) notes that the TOP program consists of twelve international corporations, which in return for their money are ensured exclusive sponsorship in their business category. For example, as long as Coca-Cola remains a TOP sponsor, Pepsi will not be one. As with broadcast rights, the United States dominates the TOP program; seven of the TOP sponsors are U.S. based. The Business of Sports notes that sponsorships accounted for about 40% of the IOC's revenues from 2001 to 2004. According to the Marketing Fact File, the TOP program brought in $663 million during the 2001–04 quadrennium. For the 2006 Winter Olympics, the Marketing Report: Torino 2006 states that the sponsorship revenue totaled 269.8 million euros ($372 million at the August 2007 exchange rate).

The Marketing Fact File indicates that the IOC received another $411 million, representing 10% of its total revenue, from ticket sales to the events and opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics during the 2001–04 quadrennial. The other major revenue source, the sale of licensed merchandise bearing Olympic logos and other trademarks, including Olympic coins and stamps, generated the remaining 2% of the IOC's revenue, or about $87 million. According to the Marketing Report: Torino 2006, ticket sales for the 2006 winter games generated 66 million euros ($91 million), and another 16.7 million euros ($23 million) in licensing revenue.

About 92% of IOC revenue is subsequently distributed to the other organizations that collectively make up the Olympic movement, including: OCOGs, which, as noted earlier, are the committees formed to run the Olympics within the country that has been selected to host the games; NOCs, whose main role within each of the 199 countries in the Olympic family is to field their country's Olympic team; and IFs, which coordinate and monitor international competition within their specific sport or family of sports. The IOC retains only about 8% of its overall revenue. These funds are used to cover the organization's operating and administrative costs.

According to the 2006 Marketing Fact File, the summer and winter OCOGs for each four-year period share about half of the TOP program revenue and in-kind contributions. Before 2004 the IOC contributed 60% of broadcast revenue for each Olympic games to the OCOGs; since 2004 it has contributed 40%.

In contrast to the IOC, IFs, NOCs, and NGBs, the OCOGs are temporary agencies. They disband once the games they were created to organize are over. The OCOGs are highly dependent on the IOC for their funding, receiving a substantial share of the IOC's revenue from sponsorships and broadcasting. OCOGs also generate revenue of their own through sponsorship, ticket sales, and licensing of merchandise. In the fact sheet "Revenue Generation and Distribution" (December 2005, http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_845.pdf), the IOC explains that even though the IOC turns over most of its revenue to other organizations, the OCOGs give only 5% of the revenue they generate to the IOC and retain the other 95%, most of which is spent on facility rentals and the construction and removal of temporary facilities.

The vast commercial activity that fuels the Olympic flame would seem to conflict with the philosophical groundings of the Olympic movement, which value the noble spirit of competition above financial matters. The Olympic Charter acknowledges this apparent contradiction, and the IOC has implemented policies designed to address it. No advertising is allowed in the venues where events take place, or on the uniforms of athletes, coaches, or officials. The TOP program is designed to generate the maximum amount of support with a minimum number of corporate sponsors, and images of Olympic events are not allowed to be used for commercial purposes.

SELECTION OF OLYMPIC SITES

One of the IOC's (2007, http://www.olympic.org/uk/organisation/missions/cities_uk.asp) chief responsibilities is to select the cities that will host the Olympics. Olympic site selection is a two-phase procedure. The first phase is called Applicant Cities. Applicant cities must be proposed to the IOC by their NOC. They must then complete a questionnaire that outlines how they plan to carry out the monumental task of hosting the games. The IOC assesses the applications with regard to the cities' ability to organize the games. Criteria include technical capacity, government support, public opinion, general infrastructure, security, venues, accommodations, and transportation. The IOC then accepts a handful of these applicants for the next phase, called Candidate Cities.

In the second phase, candidate cities must provide the IOC with a candidature file. These files are analyzed by the IOC Evaluation Commission, which consists of IOC members, representatives of the IFs, NOCs, the IOC Athletes' Commission, the International Paralympics Committee, and other experts. The Evaluation Commission also physically inspects the candidate cities. It then issues a report, on whose basis the IOC Executive Board prepares a list of final candidates. This list is submitted to the IOC session for a vote.

OLYMPIC ATHLETES: PROFESSIONALS
OR AMATEURS?

Early on, the Olympics were considered an arena for strictly amateur competition. Professional athletes were not allowed to participate. This led to a number of controversies and disqualifications over the years, the most famous being the disqualification of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon champion Jim Thorpe (1888–1953), who was stripped of his gold medals when it was discovered that he had played semiprofessional baseball.

Eventually, the rigid rules regarding professionalism became less practical. Many countries were supporting their athletes financially, allowing them to train full time and making a mockery of their "amateur" status. This put athletes in other countries at a competitive disadvantage. The regulations prohibiting professional athletes from participating in the Olympics were relaxed in the 1980s and eliminated entirely in the 1990s. This change allowed, for example, the development of the U.S. basketball "Dream Team," featuring a number of top National Basketball Association players, and the participation of National Hockey League players on Winter Olympics hockey teams.

DOPING

Almost from the beginning, the use of performance-enhancing substances, known as doping, has plagued the Olympics. An early example was Thomas J. Hicks, winner of the 1904 marathon, who was given strychnine and brandy. Doping methods improved over time, sometimes with disastrous results. The Danish cyclist Knut Jensen died after falling from his bicycle during the 1960 games. He was found to have taken amphetamines. The international sports federations and the IOC banned doping in the 1960s, but for most of the time since then officials have lacked the tools to adequately police the use of illicit substances. Until recently, the highest-profile Olympic athlete to be disqualified for doping was the Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson (1961–), winner of the one-hundred-meter race in 1988. A few years later, it was revealed that East German sports officials had doped female athletes for years without the IOC's knowledge. As the problem of doping grew out of control in the 1990s, the international sports community responded by forming the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. WADA oversees the monitoring and enforcing of doping regulations at the Olympics.

WADA's creation did not, however, solve the problem entirely. Athletes in every Olympic games since its formation have been found to be in violation of anti-doping rules. In "Doping Cases Hit Record" (USA Today, August 29, 2004), Tom Weir reports that twenty-four athletes were ousted from the Athens Olympics for drug-related violations. The list included no American athletes. The last U.S. competitors to test positive for banned substances at the Olympics were the shot putter Bonnie Dasse and the hammer thrower Jud Logan, both in 1992. Since then, however, several Americans who appeared headed for the Olympics have been barred, or have come under a cloud of suspicion. In the wake of the BALCO scandal (see Chapter 9 for more information), the sprinter Kelli White received a two-year ban that kept her out of the 2004 Olympics. The sprinter Tim Montgomery (1975–), also implicated in the BALCO affair, failed to qualify for the 2004 games, but in 2005 he received a two-year ban from competing and was stripped of a number of his past medals and results, including a former world-record performance in the one-hundred-meter dash. Perhaps the highest-profile Olympic athlete embroiled in BALCO was the sprinter Marion Jones (1975–). Jones, however, proclaimed her innocence throughout the investigation. In "Doping Test Criticized, Defended after Jones Cleared" (USA Today, September 8, 2006), Dick Patrick notes that she was finally cleared of the charges in 2006, after the results of further testing turned up negative. However, the article "Marion Jones Running out of Money" (Boston Globe, June 25, 2007) reports that the ordeal cost Jones hundreds of thousands of dollars in endorsements and appearance fees, and thousands more in legal expenses, bringing her to the brink of financial ruin. In October 2007 Jones admitted to having used illegal performance-enhancing drugs during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, in which she won three gold medals and two bronze. Facing pressure from the U.S. Olympic Committee, she surrendered her Olympic medals and was retroactively disqualified from all events dating back to September 1, 2000.

OTHER OLYMPIC GAMES

Special Olympics

Special Olympics is a global nonprofit organization that provides opportunities for athletic training and competition for people with developmental disabilities. According to the Special Olympics, in "From Backyard Camp to Global Movement: The Beginnings of Special Olympics" (2007, http://www.specialolympics.org/Special+Olympics+Public+Website/English/About_Us/History/default.htm), the organization serves more than 2.5 million athletes in at least 165 countries. Participants may train or compete in any of thirty Olympic-style summer and winter sports.

The Special Olympics movement began in the summer of 1968, when the First International Special Olympics were held at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, home of the National Football Leagues's Chicago Bears. The roots of the Special Olympics go back to 1962, when Eunice Mary Kennedy Shriver (1920–), the sister of President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), started a day camp for developmentally disabled children. In June of that year Shriver invited thirty-five boys and girls to Camp Shriver at Timberlawn, her home in Rockville, Maryland. Her idea was that children who were cognitively impaired were capable of accomplishing much more than was generally believed at the time, if they were given opportunities to do so. Building on Camp Shriver, Shriver began to actively promote the notion of involving people with disabilities in physical activities and competition. Through the Kennedy Foundation, she targeted grants to universities, community centers, and recreation departments that created such opportunities. The foundation helped fund eleven camps similar to Camp Shriver across the country in 1963. By 1969 thirty-two camps serving ten thousand children were being supported by the foundation.

In 1967 the Kennedy Foundation worked with the Chicago Park District to organize a citywide track meet for mentally disabled people that was modeled on the Olympics. The first Special Olympics at Soldier Field attracted one thousand athletes from twenty-six states and Canada, who competed in track and field, floor hockey, and aquatics.

In "World Games: List of Special Olympics World Games" (2007, http://www.specialolympics.org/Special+Olympics+Public+Website/English/Compete/World_Games/List+of+World+Games.htm), the Special Olympics states that by the Fourth International Special Olympics Summer Games, which took place at Central Michigan University in August 1975, the number of participants had more than tripled to thirty-two hundred, representing ten countries. The games were broadcast to a nationwide audience on the television show CBS Sports Spectacular. The Special Olympics Winter Games were launched two years later, with about five hundred athletes competing in skating and skiing events at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The Tenth Special Olympics World Summer Games, held from June to July 1999 in Raleigh-Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, attracted 7,000 athletes from 150 countries. The games featured nineteen sports by this time. In the press release "The 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games Set to Take Place in Shanghai, China" (September 21, 2007, http://www.specialolympics.org/), the Special Olympics notes that the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, China (October 2–11, 2007), was expected to serve nearly 7,500 athletes from 165 countries. The Special Olympics World Winter Games will take place in February 2009 in Boise, Idaho.

In "Celebrating Growth: Adding It Up" (2007, http://www.specialolympics.org/Special+Olympics+Public+Website/English/About_Us/Campaign_Celebration/Adding+It+Up.htm), Andrei Chursov of the Special Olympics reports that by December 2005 nearly 2.3 million Special Olympics athletes actively participated in training sessions and athletic competitions across the world. This represented a 129 percent growth rate between 2000 and 2005. For the last few years, the fastest growth in Special Olympics participation has taken place in Africa, East Asia, the Asian Pacific, and the Middle East.

In 1988 the IOC formally recognized the Special Olympics, signing an agreement proclaiming its support. The Special Olympics also has a formal relationship with the USOC and has been designated as the National Governing Body/Disabled Sports Organization for athletes with intellectual disabilities. The Special Olympics has other relationships, some of them formal, others less so, with the NOCs of many other nations. Furthermore, the Special Olympics has links with the IFs and NGBs that govern individual sports. Competition must be in accordance with the rules of these organizations, except in cases where they conflict with the Special Olympics' own rules; in such instances, Special Olympics rules take precedence.

Paralympics

While the Special Olympics serves people with mental disabilities, athletes with physical disabilities, including mobility limitations, amputees, and people with visual disabilities and cerebral palsy, may compete in the Paralympics. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; September 25, 2007, http://www.paralympic.org/release/Main_Sections_Menu/Paralympic_Games/) notes that the concept for the Paralympics grew out of a 1948 event called the Stoke Mandeville Games, a competition for World War II veterans with spinal cord injuries. The first Olympic-style competition for people with physical disabilities took place in 1960 in Rome. These became the Paralympic games. The Winter Paralympics were added in 1976.

Unlike the Special Olympics, the Paralympics have always been held in the same year as the Olympic games. Since the 1988 summer games in Seoul, South Korea, and the 1992 winter games in Albertville, France, the Paralympics have been held in the same venues as well. This arrangement has been cemented in place by an agreement reached with the IOC in 2001. Since the 2002 games in Salt Lake City, both the Olympic and Paralympic games have been set up by the same organizing committee as well. Paralympic athletes live in the same Olympic village with the same food and medical facilities as their Olympic counterparts, and the ticketing, technology, and transportation systems are shared. A total of 3,806 athletes representing 136 countries competed in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece. In the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin, 474 athletes competed. There were fifty-eight medal events in the sports of alpine skiing, ice sledge hockey, Nordic skiing, and wheelchair curling. In the brochure Spirit in Motion (2003, http://www.paralympic.org/release/Main_Sections_Menu/IPC/IPC_Brochure.pdf), the IPC explains that it oversees the Paralympics, performing much the same role as the IOC does for the Olympics. The IPC consists of 160 national Paralympic committees and five disability-specific international sports federations, similar to the IFs that oversee specific Olympic sports. The national Paralympics organization for the United States is U.S. Paralympics, which is a division of the USOC.

Deaflympics

Besides the Special Olympics and the Paralympics, the IOC also sanctions the Deaflympics, which have existed since 1924—almost as long as the Olympics themselves. The first Deaflympics, organized by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD; 2007, http://www.deaflympics.com/about/), were held in Paris that year. The winter games were added in 1949.

According to the ICSD (2007, http://www.deaflympics.com/games/), 2,150 deaf athletes from 70 countries participated in the Twentieth Summer Games, held in Melbourne, Australia, in January 2005. The Sixteenth Winter Games, held in Salt Lake City in 2007, were expected to host 298 athletes from 23 different nations. The ICSD (2007, http://www.deaflympics.com/athletes/?ID=239) explains that athletes must have a hearing loss of at least fifty-five decibels in their better ear to qualify for the Deaflympics. To ensure a level playing field, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other devices that augment hearing are not used during the competition.

THE OLYMPICS: 1988

Calgary Winter Games

The XV Winter Olympics were held in Calgary, Alberta, from 13 to 28 February. They included 1,793 athletes from a record fifty-seven nations and marked the fourth time in twelve years that the Games were held at a North American venue. Free of political controversy, the Games suffered from high winds and unseasonably warm weather. Nonetheless, IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch called the Calgary Games "the best ever." Many of the 180,000 visitors to Calgary no doubt agreed. The American team, however, did not fare well. The U.S. hockey team finished seventh and failed to make it to the medal round. Debi Thomas came up short in her attempt to supplant Katarina Witt of East Germany as the Olympic figure skating champion. After missing a series of jumps and slipping several times during her long program, Thomas ended up taking the bronze, behind Witt and silver medalist Elizabeth Manley of Canada, More disappointing, speed skater Dan Jansen fell in both the 500-meter and 1,000-meter sprints. Jansen, who was world champion in the 500 meters, learned just prior to the first race that his sister had died of leukemia. Following Jansen's first fall, Thomas Boswell wrote that "millions of people all over America, perhaps hundreds of millions around the world, felt a pain of unaccountable sharpness." Although the U.S. team suffered its worst disappointments on the ice, they also won two gold medals on the surface" In the men's figure skating competition Brian Boitano of the United States outdueled Canadian Brian Orser for the Olympic championship. Said Boitano afterward, "I've never been so proud to be an American." Speed skater Bonnie Blair won the gold medal in the 500-meter race, setting new Olympic and world records. "The moment I crossed the finish line was the happiest of my life," said Blair. "And hearing the national anthem played when I got my medal was probably the second happiest." Blair later won a bronze in the 1,000 meters to become the only double medalist on the U.S. team. As was the case at the 1984 Winter Olympiad, the Soviet team won the most medals with 29 (11 gold, 9 silver, and 9 bronze), and East Germany finished second with 25 medals (9 gold, 10 silver, and 6 bronze). The United States finished a distant and disappointing ninth with 6 medals (2 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze).

A New Era

With the opening of the XXIV Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, the era of the political boycott came to an end. The Seoul Summer Games drew entries from a record 160 countries, and 9,417 athletes participated in the competition. Only seven IOC-member nations failed to send teams, most notably North Korea and Cuba. The 1988 Summer Games were the first since 1964 in which no major political issues were disruptive. Still, there were political concerns. "The tension in South Korea was fierce," wrote William Johnson. "Student riots had engulfed sections of the city in the weeks leading up to the Olympics, and South Korea's hated Communist brothers to the north were suspected of preparing all sorts of bloody terrorist acts to disrupt the Games/' Despite such concerns the games suffered no political disruptions. Adding to the success and high level of the competition was the fact that many of the issues regarding amateurism had finally been resolved. According to Randy Roberts and James Olson, "Amateurism had ceased to be a problem. IOC officials allowed 'professionals' to compete in some sports and "amateurs" to become millionaires through endorsements and other payments." At the 1988 Summer Games virtually everyone was eligible. "Olympic athletes were free, at last, of the hypocritical need to pretend that they were really just ordinary blokes who trained a bit after work," wrote Allen Guttmann. Veteran sportswriter Frank Deford expressed the view of many respected Olympic observers: "The Games in Seoul showed that the Olympics have moved into a new era a few years before they move into their second century. For most of the Games' first 92 years the issues that commanded attention off the field were politics, money and amateurism (which is, of course, politics and money). The Seoul Games indicated that in large part these issues have been resolved, or perhaps simply dissolved, by compromise and evolution. In their stead is another major issue that will engage the Games at Barcelona in 1992 and beyond—drugs."

Drugs

Scandal shook the 1988 Summer Games during their first week. On 24 September Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson won the eagerly anticipated 100-meter dash and set a world record with a time of 9.79 seconds. Carl Lewis, the 1984 Olympic champion and Johnson's primary rival, finished second. Three days later, Johnson was stripped of his gold medal when it was discovered that he had tested positive for anabolic steroids. Johnson was not alone. Over the course of the 1988 Games nine other athletes, mostly weigtlifters, were disqualified after tests revealed illegal drug use: four of them were deprived of their Olympic medals. At the previous quadrennial in Los Angeles, eleven athletes, two of whom who were medalists, were also disqualified for using performance-enhancing substances. Still, for many, Johnson tainted the 1988 Games. Although some South Korean Olympic officials resented the controversy, many Canadians were devastated by the news. According to William Johnson, "Some Canadians treated Johnson's bust as high treason, some as raw tragedy." One Toronto newspaper editorialized: "National celebration has become national wake. Parents struggle to answer questions from their teary-eyed children, even as our athletes in Seoul cover their uniforms in shame and sports fans contemplate the dreadful possibility that they may never see the fastest man in the history of the world run again, ever." Due to the revelations, second-place finisher Carl Lewis was awarded the gold medal in the 100 meters and became the first sprinter to defend his title. "I feel sad for Ben and for the Canadian public," said Lewis. "Ben is a great athlete, and my hope is that in the next two years [the length of his suspension] he can get himself together and return to our sport." Unlike most observers, former runner Mary Decker Slaney managed to put a positive spin on the misfortune: "I think it's wonderful. Not because of Ben, but because I want a clean sport. The fact that a thing this big can't be swept under the rug is a sign of hope."

A Family Affair

The most successful and flamboyant female athlete of the Olympics was Florence Griffith Joyner. Dubbed "Flo-Jo," Griffith Joyner won the gold medal in the 100 meters in 10.54 seconds. "Only a man could run faster than she can," said former gold medalist sprinter Evelyn Ashford. Griffith Joyner then won the 200 meters, setting a world record in the process. Next, Griffith Joyner ran the third leg of the gold medal-winning 4 x 100-meter relay team. Finally, she anchored silver medal-winning 4 x 400-meter relay squad. At the close of the competition Griffith Joyner said, "These days have been a dream come true." Though less flashy than her sister-in-law, Jackie Joyner-Kersee performed no less spectacularly. She bested her own world record in the heptathlon and later won her second gold medal in the long jump competition. All told, Griffith Joyner and Joyner-Kersee accounted for five of the six gold medals won by the United States in the women's track-and-field competition. "By all odds Flo-Jo and her sister-in-law, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, should have come away from Seoul as prom queens to the world, like Mary Lou [Retton] and Olga [Korbut] before them," noted Frank Deford. "Instead, because of the ugly shadow of drugs, their achievements were held up to suspicion, and our affections wavered." Though speaking in her own defense, Joyner-Kersee could also have been referring to her sister-in-law when she said, "I worked hard to get here. I haven't used drugs. It's time and patience and work. So it's just not fair to point fingers, to blame us all."

Swimming and Diving

Although the U.S. swim team won only eight gold medals and eighteen medals overall, its poorest showing since the 1960 Games in Rome, there were several notable individual achievements at the Games. Preeminent among them was the remarkable performance turned in by Matt Biondi, who won five gold medals, one silver, and a bronze. Biondi's seven medals matched the number Mark Spitz amassed at the 1972 Games. But as his defenders were quick to note, Spitz won seven gold medals and set seven world records in Munich. "The Mark Spitz days are over," said Biondi during the competition. Nonetheless, Biondi set an individual world record (in the 50-meter freestyle), an Olympic record (100-meter freestyle), and was a member of three world-record-setting relay teams. Besides Biondi, Janet Evans was the only other American swimmer to win individual gold medals. The seventeen-year-old Evans won the 400-meter individual medley, the 800-meter freestyle, and the 400-meter freestyle; the latter two performances earned her Olympic and world records, respectively. Diver Greg Louganis provided compelling drama. A gold medalist in the springboard and platform competitions in 1984, Louganis was leading the spring-board competition when he hit his head on the board during a dive and crashed into the water. Although he required four stitches, Louganis said, "I think my pride was hurt more than anything else." An hour later he recorded the highest score of the day. The next day he won the gold. In the platform competition Louganis proved to be just as resilient. On his final dive Louganis executed an extraordinarily difficult dive and edged out Xiong Ni of China 638.61-637.47. Louganis became the first man to win two diving gold medals in two Olympics in a row and solidified his claim to being the greatest diver in history.

FOREVER YOUNG

If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart," implored President James A. Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States. "The spirit should never grow old." Over the course of the 1980s, hundreds of thousands of athletically inclined senior Americans took Garfield's exhortation seriously and participated in a variety of sports considerably more strenuous than shuffleboard. Many seniors played at levels which would have taxed people half or, in some cases, even a quarter their age. Inspiring examples of serious senior athletic accomplishment were legion. Seniors could be found on golf courses and tennis courts but also at organized senior Olympic-style competitions nationwide. By the end of the decade over one hundred thousand athletes from all over America competed in over fifty preliminary competitions in order to qualify for the second biennial U.S. National Senior Olympics in St. Louis. Though one octogenarian athlete explained that he was there to "kick some butt," ninety-one.-year-old sprinter Guy Sibley probably more accurately reflected the ethos of the games: "Most people my age just retire and set, but that gets old. I like to keep going." The institutional origins of the Senior Olympics—later renamed the U.S. National Senior Sports Classic at the behest of the U.S. Olympic Committee—can be traced to the late 1960s when grass-roots organizations began sponsoring senior games. But the spiritual source of the games is ancient. One competitor, no doubt speaking for many, explained: "Senior athletics is one of the few areas where you look forward to your birthdays. Thus we remain forever young."

Sources:

Leslie Lindeman, "Beating Time," Modern Maturity (June/July 1991): 26-35;

Demmie Stathoplos, "Silver Threads Among The Gold (Medals)," Sports Illustrated (3 July 1989): 38-40.

Upsets

On 28 September the U.S. men's basketball team was upset by the Soviets, 82-76, in the semifinals of the medal round. It was just the second basketball game the U.S. had ever lost in the Olympics, the other being the controversial 1972 final against the Soviets. This time, however, after playing a nearly perfect game, the experienced Soviet team legitimately beat the American squad, which was coached by John Thompson of George-town University and composed of future NBA players such as David Robinson, Danny Manning, and Mitch Richmond. The Soviets went on to take the gold medal by beating Yugoslavia, while the Americans settled for the bronze after thrashing the Australian team. The disappointing third-place finish led many to second-guess Thompson's strategy, which emphasized defense, and the selection of his players. "If somebody's going to criticize us for striving for excellence and not being able to achieve it," said Thompson, "let it be." An upset of an entirely different sort occurred on 2 October. In the boxing finals of the light-middleweight division, Roy Jones of the United States was paired with Park Si-Hun of South Korea. After the three-round bout it was unanimously agreed upon by observers that Jones had dominated Park. Jones landed more punches and tagged his opponent with a standing eight-count. Inexplicably, the judges voted 3-2 for Park. The decision was a travesty. Jones was devastated and said he was considering quitting the sport. Before the medal ceremony Park said to Jones through an interpreter: "I am sorry. I lost the fight. I feel very bad." Recognizing the injustice of the decision, the International Amateur Boxing Federation (AIBA) awarded Jones the Val Baker Cup, which is bestowed upon the tournament's outstanding boxer. In addition to the Jones incident, the boxing tournament suffered other controversies, the most serious of which occurred when several South Korean boxing officials charged the ring and assaulted a referee after one of their fighters lost a decision. Charges of bias and incompetence in the officiating at the boxing events resulted in two-year suspensions for several Korean officials, judges, and referees. The competition was so rife with controversy that at the conclusion of the Games IOC president Samaranch mused that boxing might be discontinued as an Olympic sport.

Other Stars

Carl Lewis did not match his 1984 performance in Seoul, but he came close. In addition to his successful defense of his Olympic championship in the 100-meter dash, he also defended his long jump title. Both of these accomplishments were unprecedented. In the 200 meters Lewis finished second to his training partner Joe DeLoach, who set a Olympic record by winning the race in 19.75 seconds. At the conclusion of the Seoul Games Kenny Moore wrote: "It's time to reexamine our perceptions of Lewis. When these bewildering Olympics recede enough to allow us a sense of proportion, we may not remember Johnson being found out as much as Lewis being revealed as the gentleman he has always been." As usual, Americans excelled in the track-and-field competitions. Steven Lewis, Butch Reynolds, and Danny Everett finished one, two, and three, respectively, in the 400 meters, and Lewis, Mike Powell, and Larry Myricks swept the long jump competition. The U.S. men's relay team set a world record in the 4 x 400 meters. The remarkable Edwin Moses competed in his third and final Olympics and took the bronze in the 400-meter hurdles. In other action Phoebe Mills was the only U.S. gymnast to win a medal, a bronze in the balance beam. The U.S. women's basketball team, led by Teresa Edwards and Katrina McClain, defeated Yugoslavia to win the gold. The U.S. men's volleyball team repeated as Olympic champions with a win over the Soviets in the finals, while the U.S. water polo team finished second to the Yugoslavs. The U.S. boxing team won eight medals, including three gold. Free-style wrestlers John Smith (137 pounds) and Kenneth Monday (163 pounds) won gold medals. The U.S. baseball team won the demonstration gold medal with a 5-3 victory over Japan in the finals. The winning pitcher was the one-handed Jim Abbott, who had won the 1987 Sullivan Award as the nation's best athlete.

Medal Count

The United States won 94 medals, including 36 gold, at the Summer Games to finish third in the final medal count behind the Soviet Union (55 gold and 132 overall) and East Germany (37 gold and 102 total). Though the U.S. team's performance was not as spectacular as it was in 1984, there was cause for enthusiasm. "Despite gloom-and-doom predictions and a stumbling start out of the blocks, the 1988 U.S. Olympic team came out of Seoul with pretty good results," affirmed E. M. Swift. "It was a team whose lack of depth was balanced out by the quality and maturity of its best athletes, and one that generally kept victory in perspective and showed grace in defeat. These last two qualities were reason enough to declare these Games a success for the Americans who participated."

Sources:

Lisa H. Albertson, ed., Seoul Calgary 1988: The Official Publication of the U.S. Olympic Committee (Sandy, Utah: Commemorative Publications, 1988);

Allen Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992);

William Oscar Johnson, The Olympics: A History of the Games (Birmingham, Ala.: Oxmoor House, 1992);

David Wallechinsky, The Complete Book of the Olympics (Boston: Little, Brown, 1991).

The Olympics

Albertville, France: (1992)

The first Olympiad of the decade, and the first in the post-Cold War era, began with concern for the fragile alpine ecology of its venue. Competing athletes convened in Albertville, France, in 1992, only for the opening and closing ceremonies. Otherwise, they dispersed throughout the region for the games. That model, far less disruptive to the natural beauty of Winter Olympic venues, has been successfully adopted in each Olympiad since. The breakup of the Soviet Union and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall made an impact on the Olympics as countries such as Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia competed under their own flags for the first time since prior to World War II. Germany fielded one team instead of two, and some former Soviet athletes competed under the Unified Team name, though the flags of their separate republics were raised as individual winners stood on the victory stand. In the actual competition the U.S. team as a whole turned in a fairly "typical" performance, placing fifth in the number of gold medals captured with five, behind Germany (ten), the Unified Team (nine), Norway (nine), and Austria (six). The most interesting medals won by the Americans were in the showcase event of women's figure skating, where Kristi Yamaguchi, the favorite, won the gold, and Nancy Kerrigan won the bronze. Kerrigan's rise to prominence was to be the ice skating story of the next two years as she won the U.S.

OLYMPICS INDIVIDUAL U.S. GOLD MEDAL WINNERS

1992 Winter Olympics (Albertville, France)

Bonnie Blair, Women's Speed Skating, Long Track, 500 meter, Women's Speed Skating, Long Track, 1000 meter

Cathy Turner, Women's Speed Skating, Short Track, 500 meter

Donna Weinbrecht, Women's Moguls, Freestyle Skiing

Kristi Yamaguchi, Women's Figure Skating

Summer Olympics (Barcelona, Spain)

Mike Barrowman, Swimming, Men's 200-meter Breast-stroke

Bruce Baumgartner, Freestyle Wrestling, Super-Heavyweight

Jennifer Capriati, Women's Tennis, Singles

Mike Conley, Track and Field, Men's Triple Jump

Oscar De La Hoya, Boxing, Lightweight

Gail Devers, Track and Field, Women's 100-meter

Nelson Diebel, Swimming, Men's 100-meter Breaststroke

Trent Dimas, Gymnastics, Men's Horizontal Bar

Janet Evans, Swimming, Women's 800-meter Freestyle

Gigi Fernandez and Mary Jo Fernandez, Women's Tennis, Doubles

Nicole Haislett, Swimming, Women's 200-meter Freestyle

Kevin Jackson, Freestyle Wrestling, Middleweight

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Track and Field, Women's Heptathlon

Mike Lenzi, Men's Springboard Diving

Carl Lewis, Track and Field, Men's Long Jump

Mike Marsh, Track and Field, Men's 200-meter

Launi Meili, Women's Small Bore Rifle

Pablo Morales, Swimming, Men's 100-meter Butterfly

Summer Sanders, Swimming, Women's 200-meter Butterfly

John Smith, Freestyle Wrestling, Featherweight

Melvin Stewart, Swimming, Men's 200-meter Butterfly

Mike Stuke, Track and Field, Men's Shot Put

Gwen Torrence, Track and Field, Women's 200-meter

Quincy Watts, Track and Field, Men's 400 meter

Kevin Young, Track and Field, men's 400-meter Hurdles

1994 Winter Olympics (Lillehammer, Norway)

Bonnie Blair, Women's Long Track Speed Skating 500-meter, Women's Long Track Speed Skating 1000-meter

Dan Jansen, Men's Long Track Speed Skating 1000-meter

Tommy Moe, Men's Downhill, Alpine Skiing

Diann Roffe-Steinrotter, Women's Super G, Alpine Skiing

Cathy Turner, Women's Short Track Speed Skating 500 meter

1996 Summer Olympics (Atlanta)

Derrick Adkins, Track and Field, Men's 400-meter Hurdles

Andre Agassi, Men's Tennis, Singles

Kurt Angle, Freestyle Wrestling, Heavyweight

Charles Austin, Track and Field, Men's High Jump

Randy Barnes, Track and Field, Men's Shot Put

Brooke Bennett, Swimming, Women's 800-meter Freestyle

Beth Botsford, Swimming, Women's 100-meter Back-stroke

Thomas Brands, Freestyle Wrestling, Featherweight

Brad Bridgewater, Swimming, Men's 200-meter Back-stroke

Kendall Cross, Freestyle Wrestling, Bantamweight

Lindsay Davenport, Women's Tennis, Singles

Gail Devers, Track and Field, Women's 100-meter

Tom Dolan, Swimming, Men's 400-meter Individual Relay

Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez, Women's Tennis, Doubles

Kenny Harrison, Track and Field, Men's Triple Jump

Justin Huish, Men's Archen'

Allen Johnson, Track and Field, Men's 110-meter Hurdles

Michael Johnson, Track and Field, Men's 200-meter, Track and Field, Men's 400-meter

Carl Lewis, Track and Field, Men's Long Jump

Shannon Miller, Gymnastics, Women's Balance Beam

Dan O'Brien, Track and Field, Men's Decathlon

David Reid, Boxing, Light Middleweight

Kim Rhode, Women's Double Trap Shooting

Jeff Rouse, Swimming, Men's 100-meter Backstroke

Amy Van Dyken, Swimming, Women's 50-meter Free-style, Swimming, Women's 100-meter Butterfly

1998 Winter Olympics (Nagano, Japan)

Eric Bergourst, Men's Freestyle Skiing—Aerials

Tara Lipinski, Women's Figure Skating

Janny Mosely, Men's Freestyle Skiing—Moguls

Nikki Stone, Women's Freestyle Skiing—Aerials

Picabo Street, Women's Super G Alpine Skiing

women's championship in 1993 and then was assaulted on 6 January 1994 in an attempt by rival Tonya Harding to put a halt to Kerrigan's bid to go to the Olympics at Lille-hammer. The other U.S. Olympic star in Albertville was Bonnie Blair, who won two gold medals in women's speed skating (five hundred meters and one thousand meters). No American men won gold medals in Albertville.

Barcelona, Spain: 1992

The star of these games may have been Barcelona itself, as beautiful a site and as accommodating a culture as has ever hosted the Olympics. Politics seemed to matter less than in previous years, as Cuba, North Korea, and Ethiopia ended their boycotts, each nation having missed two Olympic games. South Africa, which had been absent since I960, also returned. Yugoslav citizens were allowed to compete, but the nation was banned from competition because of its military aggression against Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. American athletes again performed "typically," which is to say with considerable distinction in many areas and below expectations in others. They managed only a fourth-place finish in baseball, a new Olympic sport, but the basketball Dream Team, made up of National Basketball Association (NBA) all-stars (the first time professionals were allowed to represent the United States in basketball) swept easily to a gold medal. The U.S. team won thirty-seven gold medals, falling only behind the Unified Team. These wins were complemented by thirty-four silver and thirty-seven bronze medals. In track and field Carl Lewis continued to establish his claim during the 1980s and 1990s as the out-standing male Summer Olympic athlete of the century (the award was announced in December 1999), one of only two individuals ever to win nine gold medals in track and field. He was also one of two, Jesse Owens being the other, to win four gold medals in the same event. During the 1992 Olympics, affected by a virus, Lewis was still able to win the long jump, a feat he also achieved in 1984, 1988, and 1996. Jackie Joyner-Kersee was chosen the out-standing female Summer Olympian of the century. During the 1992 Olympics she followed up on her two track and field gold medals (heptathlon and long jump) in the previous Olympics by winning the gold in the women's heptathlon. The men's swim team won six golds out of nineteen events and the women's swim team won six out of twenty. Oscar de la Hoya was the sole U.S. victor in boxing, but three members of the freestyle wrestling team won gold medals. Jennifer Capriati won the women's singles tennis title, while Gigi and Mary Jo Fernandez won the women's doubles tennis gold.

Lillehammer, Norway: 1994

Like much else in sports, the decision to separate the Summer and Winter Olympics by a span of two years was driven by financial considerations. It made more sense to produce such a massive event, with television broadcasting rights and a host of other commercial interests at stake, every two years rather than both Games a few months apart every four years. The Americans performed as usual, winning but six gold medals at Lillehammer, placing fifth once again in total golds, in essentially the same events with the same cast of characters in the spotlight, but for different reasons. Figure skater Kerrigan, victim of the clubbing, valiantly trained and returned to the Olympics to give a silver-medal performance. Harding, who would later plead guilty to a charge of hindering the investigation, sued for the right to compete in the Olympic figure-skating competition, in which she placed eighth. The other repeat performer from the 1992 Winter Olympics was Blair, who was in her fourth Olympiad. Again she won the five-hundred-and one-thousand-meter women's long track speed skating gold medals, bringing her total number of Olympic victories to five. Dan Jansen, a sentimental favorite after having been thwarted in his previous attempts, won the men's long track one-thousand-meter speed skating race. He took an emotional lap with baby daughter Jane (named after his sister of whose death he had learned of immediately prior to his Olympic competition in 1988). Alaskan Tommy Moe won the men's downhill in Alpine skiing.

Atlanta, Georgia: 1996

The Summer Olympics came to Atlanta in July 1996, the first time the games had been hosted by a city in the southern United States. There was nothing typical about these Olympics. The very thing every host nation fears took place when tragedy struck, as a homemade bomb exploded on 27 July in the Olympic Centennial Park, killing one woman (a cameraman died of a heart attack later) and injuring 111. Following the precedent established by International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage during the 1972 Olympics, when eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage and later murdered by terrorists, the games continued. His rationale, which probably pre-served the future of the games, was, "We have only the strength of a great ideal. I am sure that the public would agree that we cannot allow a handful of terrorists to destroy this nucleus of international cooperation and goodwill we have in the Olympic movement.… The Games must go on." Phillip Noel-Baker, an Olympian (1912) and Nobel Peace Prize winner (1959) agreed, concluding that sport may be humankind's "best hope." In the competition venues U.S. athletes shone, winning forty-four gold, thirty-two silver, and twenty-five bronze medals. Russia was the nearest competitor at twenty-six, twenty-one, and sixteen respectively. There was no lack of U.S. heroes during these games. Probably the most thrilling competitors were the tiny members of the women's gymnastics team. Shannon Miller won the gold with her prowess on the beam, and the team won the gold medal with a gusty performance, especially by 4'9" eighteen-year-old Kerri Strug, who made her last vault landing on an already badly sprained ankle. Michael Johnson, ignoring criticism that the track and field schedule had been specifically altered so he could participate in both the two-hundred-and four-hundred-meter races, won both events. Gail Devers won her second consecutive gold medal in the women's one-hundred-meter race. The American women's swim team again dominated in the pool, winning seven of sixteen titles, along with five silvers and three bronzes. The men's swim team was not far behind with six golds, six silvers, and one bronze. The U.S. men's archery team was victorious, with Justin Huish winning the individual gold. Both Dream Teams won in basketball. Andre Agassi and Lindsay Davenport won singles victories in tennis, and Gigi and Mary Jo Fernandez repeated as doubles champions. The U.S. women's soccer team won their event, a prelude to winning the World Cup in 1999—both victories gave women's athletics a boost in the United States unlike anything since Title IX of the Federal Education Amendments (1972).

Nagano, Japan: 1998

From an American point of view, possibly the most notable thing about these Olympics was the fourteen-hour time-zone differential between Nagano and the East Coast. It was almost impossible for CBS Sports to sustain suspense about any event when the winner had already been announced to the world on CNN. By the time the tape of skier Picabo Street's gold-medal run in the women's Alpine super G was played for the first time in prime time, the result had already been announced by the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN), and she had been interviewed on the CBS Good Morning show. Once again, the U.S. winter athletes put in an average performance, especially when compared to the success in the Summer Olympics. The U.S. team won six gold medals, three in the new "extreme" contests of freestyle skiing. With professional hockey players allowed in competition for the first time, the U.S. team disappointed on and off the ice, losing an important match to the Czech Republic four to one, then trashing three Olympic apartments in a sour display of unsportsmanlike conduct. The women's hockey team redeemed the sport by winning the gold. One delightful surprise was the gold medal performance of sixteen-year-old Tara Lipinski in women's figure skating.

An Olympic Scandal

The decade concluded with the exposure of a long-standing practice of old-fashioned bribery in the selection process of Olympic host cities. In many ways Americans were the most offended; much of the rest of the world did not understand the fuss about spending a relatively small amount of money to acquire something of so much worth. Not only were Americans the most offended, they were also the most guilty: Salt Lake City officials, who successfully bid to acquire the 2002 Winter Olympics, had spent at least $400,000 in "inappropriate material benefits" (cash payments, free housing, scholarships, and jobs) to secure the games. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), attempting to reverse this trend, asked six of its members to resign and accepted the resignations of three others who were implicated in the scandal. "Globally accepted guidelines and procedures" (IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch's phrase), however, may be harder to determine off than on the field of play.

Sources:

Chronicle of the Olympia, 1896-2000 (New York: DK, 1998).

CNNSI.com, Internet website.

The Sports Illustrated 1999 Sports Almanac (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998).

David Wallcchinsky, Sports Illustrated Presents the Complete Book of the Summer Olympics (Boston: Little, Brown, 1996).

THE OLYMPICS: 1984

Sarajevo

The XIV Winter Games, held in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, from 6 to 19 February, included 1,437 athletes from forty-nine nations. Though initially hampered by a four-day blizzard with intermittent 80-MPH winds, the Games were a success. As one observer put it, despite the weather "everyone's mood was upbeat." Before the Games began, many thought that the United States was represented by its strongest Winter Olympic team ever. If strength translates into medals, this was not the case. Still, the American team did well, particularly in the alpine events. Bill Johnson became the first American to win a gold medal in the Olympic downhill skiing event. Debbie Armstrong and Christin Cooper finished first and second in the women's giant slalom. Twins Phil and Steve Mahre finished first and second in the men's slalom. The rest of the U.S. medals came in figure skating. Three-time world champion Scott Hamilton won the men's competition and set a new Olympic record in the process. Rosalynn Sumners finished second behind East Germany's Katarina Witt in the women's competition, and Kitty and Peter Carruthers won the silver in the pairs. The Soviet Union won the most medals with 25 (6 gold, 10 silver, and 9 bronze), followed by East Germany (24), Finland (13), and Norway (9), while the United States tied with Sweden for fifth with eight medals (4 gold and 4 silver). Just eight years later, Sarajevo would be devastated by mortar and sniper fire as warring factions battled for control of the city.

Reciprocity

"Somehow Americans and the IOC assumed that the Soviet Union would attend the 1984 Los Angeles Games," wrote historians Randy Roberts and James Olson. Perhaps this was the case because they believed the Soviet Olympic committee chairman when he noted in 1983 that he did "not see any reasons" why the Soviet team would not participate in the upcoming Summer Games. Or because early the following February a Soviet IOC official commended Peter Ueberroth, president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC), for the "excellent job" he and the committee had done. In the next few months, however, the Soviet position on the 1984 Summer Games was reversed, in large part due to the death of Soviet leader Yuri Adropov, who was replaced by Konstantin Chernenko. With the change in leadership came a change in attitude toward Soviet Olympic participation in the Los Angeles Games. According to Roberts and Olson: "Old slights were once again remembered. Suddenly Soviet sports officials had reservations about the job Ueberroth was doing. Publicly they fretted over security and the over-publicized Ban the Soviet Coalition." Two months before the opening of the XXIII Summer Games the Soviets announced that they would not attend the competition. Historian Allen Guttmann contends that there is "little doubt that the Soviet decison was motivated mainly by the desire to retaliate for the damage done in 1980." A few days later East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and a host of other Warsaw Pact and communist nations announced that they too would not participate. Despite the notably weakened level of competition, 7,458 athletes from 139 countries did compete at the Los Angeles Olympiad. During the opening ceremonies Juan Antonio Samaranch, president of the IOC, noted that "our thoughts also go to those athletes who have not been able to join us." Politics aside, for writer Harvey Frommer the Los Angeles Games "were hype and hoopla, ceremony and celebration, anticipation and achievement. For those who were there as participants and witnesses, the feeling and the images of that Summer's fortnight will forever tarry in memory." The 1984 Summer Games were notable for other reasons as well. "The L.A. Olympics were a watershed," wrote Craig Neff of Sports Illustrated. "They reversed the course of the Olympic movement and demonstrated how sports could tap into the economic boom of the '80s." A huge popular and financial success—the LAOOC netted a surplus of over $200 million, only the second time since 1932 that the Games had not run a deficit—the 1984 Summer Games forever dispelled the notion that the Olympics were primarily about amateurism rather than commercialism and nationalism.

Carl Lewis Soars

"No chronicle of the Games of the XXIII Olympiad would be complete without giving full credit to the phenomenal performance of Carl Lewis," writer Mark Levine noted. The twenty-three-year-old sprinter and long jumper was the brightest of the many American stars at the Games. He won three individual gold medals—in the 100 meters, the 200 meters, and the long jump—and he anchored the gold medal-winning 4 x 100-meter relay team. In so doing Lewis matched the legendary 1936 Olympic performance of the late Jesse Owens. In the face of incredible media attention, Lewis demonstrated his remarkable athletic prowess before ninety thousand spectators at the Los Angeles Coliseum. "Success never seemed so smooth," wrote Sports Illustrated. When asked whether he competed for financial gain or to become a hero, Lewis responded: "My objective is to be the role model, not the rich man." Yet for all his accomplishments at the Games, Lewis was criticized by some for being aloof, self-important, and difficult. Sportswriter Pete Axthelm wrote that "with his sometimes whining attitude, Lewis threatened to turn victory into antiheroism. In sports history, he may relate to Owens much as Roger Maris relates to Babe Ruth, and may prove that mere records do not make legends."

America's Darling

Though Carl Lewis captured more gold medals at the 1984 Games, gymnast Mary Lou Retton probably captured more hearts. Described by one observer as a "chunky, tiny dynamo," the four-foot nine-inch sixteen-year-old won national adulation for her historic individual all-around performance—the gymnastic equivalent of the decathlon—and endearing charm. Retton's primary rival in the all-around competition was Ecaterina Szabo of Romania. Trailing Szabo by the slimmest of margins going into the final event, the vault, Retton needed a perfect score to win. So she did it. Twice. Her performance won her the enthusiastic approval of over nine thousand spectators and a place in Olympic history. "The resulting 10 gave her not only the gold, but the first individual gymnastics medal ever won by an American," wrote Murray Olderman. It was, in fact, the first all-around gymnastics victory for an American in any international competition. "It was just like I dreamt it, the excitement, the tension, the crowd," said the ebullient Retton. In addition to her gold medal Retton also won a silver in the vault competition and two bronze medals for the uneven bars and floor exercises. In the opinion of her coach, Romanian-born Bela Karolyi, who previously trained the great Nadia Comaneci and Szabo before defecting to the United States in 1982, Retton represented a "new kind of gymnast." Said Karolyi: "She's strong and powerful and athletic; not a little flower, a little flyer."

Decker, Budd Collide

Perhaps the most controversial moment during the 1984 Summer Games was the collision between favored U.S. runner Mary Decker and the barefoot South African runner Zola Budd, who was granted British citizenship in order to compete in the Games since apartheid South Africa was barred from the competition. Decker and Budd collided after completing the fourth lap of the 3,000-meter race. The accident put Decker out of the competition and allowed Maricica Puica of Romania to win the gold. An unnerved Budd finished a disappointing seventh. Did Decker fall or was she tripped? Replays were inconclusive but suggested that both women were partially responsible for the mishap. "The incident was a tragedy for both women and for the Games, which was robbed of what would have been a classic finale to the race," wrote Cliff Temple. "The regrettable outburst by Decker afterwards, holding Budd responsible, made the incident even less palatable as was Decker's refusal to shake hands with the young runner who had always idolized her." For many the sight of the injured, wailing Mary Decker crumpled in a heap at the side of the track was one of the Games' most enduring images. "For every flying Carl Lewis there is a fallen Mary Decker," wrote Time magazine, "and the fullest appreciation of sport requires both."

The Best of the Rest

There were, also, many notable performances by American athletes other than Carl Lewis and Mary Lou Retton. The star-studded U.S. men's and women's basketball teams swept their opponents on the way to gold medals. Greg Louganis won the gold medal and set a world record in the 10-meter platform diving competition and also won the springboard event. Swimmers Carrie Steinseiffer and Nancy Hogshead tied for first in the 100-meter freestyle race to become the first athletes to win dual gold medals in one event. All told, Hogshead won four medals (three gold and one silver), while fellow American swimmer Tracy Caulkins won three golds. The water polo team took the silver. The men's volleyball team beat Brazil in straight sets to win the gold medal, while the women's contingent finished second to the Chinese team. The men's gymnastic team won seven medals, including the team championship, and the women's gymnastic team won the silver in the team competition, behind the Romanians. The U.S. boxing team won a record nine gold medals, and the wrestling team won thirteen medals, including nine gold, and provided perhaps the most inspirational performance of the games: Greco-Roman wrestler Jeff Blatnick, diagnosed with cancer two years earlier, won the gold medal in the super heavyweight division and wept for joy after his victory. The Los Angeles Coliseum was the site of some of the U.S. team's most stunning performances. Evelyn Ashford won the 100-meter dash and anchored the 4 x 100-meter relay victory. Valerie Brisco-Hooks set Olympic marks in the women's 400 meters and 200 meters and thus became the first sprinter to win both events in the same Games. Brisco-Hooks was also a member of the 4 x 400-meter gold-medal relay team. Sisters-in-law Florence Griffith Joyner and Jackie Joyner were both medalists: Griffith Joyner won a silver medal in the 200-meter race and Joyner took the silver in the heptathlon. Al Joyner, Florence's husband and Jackie's brother, won the triple jump competition. Edwin Moses won his 105th consecutive race and a gold medal in the 400-meter hurdles, and Roger Kingdom won the 110-meter hurdles. In both races Americans also finished second. Finally, Joan Benoit won the first women's Olympic marathon.

TV Coverage Criticized

The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) bought the television rights to the 1984 Summer Games for $225 million. After the Games ABC reported that over 180 million Americans watched at least some of its coverage. Many Americans were interested in the unfolding narratives the Games dramatized, while others reveled in the ubiquitous chants of "U.S.A U.S.A!" every time an American athlete won an event or a medal. From the very beginning, though, non-American reporters, team officials, and some American commentators were critical of ABC's coverage of the Games, which they found too chauvinistic. Before the end of the first week of the Games IOC president Samaranch, and Ueberroth expressed concern over ABC's approach. Samaranch noted that the Olympic Charter mandated "unbiased" media coverage of the Games, and Ueberroth claimed he was troubled that ABC's broadcast was diluting the "international flavor" of the event. Later, others were more explicit. "What ABC sold was not so much athletic competition as American nationalism," argued historians Randy Roberts and James Olson. "No previous Olympics—including the 1936 Berlin Games and the 1980 Moscow Olympics—had seen such nationalistic displays." In its own defense a spokesperson for ABC explained that the network's U.S. coverage was not broadcast worldwide and that other nations could edit and provide commentary on the visual transmissions any way they pleased. "When it was all said and done, it wasn't ABC's opening-week jingoism that most indelibly marked the coverage of these Olympics after all," said William Taaffe of Sports Illustrated. Rather, he argued, it was that "ABC consistently captured emotions live on camera as sports television has never caught them before."

Medal Count

In large part due to the absence of the Soviets and the East Germans, the United States dominated the Summer Games by capturing 174 medals, including a record 83 gold. West Germany (59 total medals), Romania (53), and Canada (44) were the next highest medal-winning nations. Though most American sports fans were joyous at the end of the Games, the medal dominance of the home team was, in historian Allen Guttmann's words, "an embarrassment for anyone who recalled Pierre de Courbertin's dream of international harmony and good will." In the end, the XXIII Olympiad in Los Angeles will be remembered as an American spectacle, for better or worse.

Sources:

Mary T. Gaddie, ed., Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad Los Angeles 1984 Commemorative Book (Salt Lake City: International Sport Publications, 1984);

Allen Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992);

John Hoberman, The Olympic Crisis: Sport, Politics and the Moral Order (New York: Caratzas, 1986);

Randy Roberts and James Olson, Winning Is the Only Thing: Sports in America since 1945 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989);

Martin Vmokur, More Than A Game: Sports and Politics (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988),

THE OLYMPICS: 1972

Amateurism

The retirement of Avery Brundage as president of the International Olympic Committee at the end of the 1972 Olympics marked the beginning of the end of pretense about the games being restricted to amateur athletes. Star athletes had challenged the rule in the Olympics of the 1960s, and by 1972 it was clear that Western athletes enjoyed a level of support that approached the Eastern system of state support. The new president, Lord Killanin of Ireland, announced immediately that his first priority would be to reconsider the definition of amateurism as it related to the qualification of athletes for the games.

The Winter Games

The Winter Olympics were held in Sapporo, Japan, from 3 to 13 February. There were 1,015 men and 212 women from thirty-seven nations competing. A hint of controversy arose when Austrian skier Karl Schranz was banned from competition for flagrant commercialism. Although he encouraged his team to compete, they did not fare as well as expected. Americans won three gold medals, including a surprise win by Barbara Cochran in the slalom. American women won two other gold medals in speed skating. Sixteen-year-old world-record-holder Anne Henning won the 500-meter competition, despite a near collision with a Canadian skater who was disqualified for obstruction. Dianne Holum won the 1500 meters and took the silver medal in the 3000 to add to her silver and bronze medals won in the 1968 Olympics. No American man won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics. The United States won a total of eight medals, placing sixth among nations after the Soviet Union, with eight golds and sixteen total medals, East Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

The XX Olympiad

The summer games were held in Munich. The West German government spent $265 million to offer a hospitable setting and discourage comparison to the XX Olympiad with the last held in Germany, the 1936 Berlin games conducted under the watchful eye of Adolf Hitler. The Munich Olympics drew a record number of athletes, 5,848 men and 1,299 women, from a record 122 nations, to compete between 26 August and 10 September. There was controversy before the games opened about the participation of the integrated team from Rhodesia, which planned to compete as a British colony. The threats of black African nations to withdraw convinced the International Olympic Committee to ban Rhodesia just prior to the opening of competition.

American Misfortune

For Americans the XX Olympiad was marred by bad luck and horrible memories. Only the swimmers performed according to expectations, and they were magnificent. The track-and-field competitions were a nightmare. In the men's 100-meter sprint, Eddie Hart was considered the only challenger to Soviet favorite Valery Borozov, though Hart's teammate Rey Robinson had equaled Hart's 9.9 seconds in the Olympic trials. Both Americans won their heats in the first round, which began at 11:09 A.M. on 31 August and advanced to the quarterfinals scheduled for 4:15 that afternoon. Their coach, though, had an eighteen-month old preliminary schedule that showed their heats beginning at 7 P.M. Hart, Robinson, and Robert Taylor, the other American qualifier, were strolling back to the Olympic stadium at 4:15 when they stopped by ABC headquarters and saw the heats they were scheduled for on a live-feed transmission. Taylor's heat was the last to be run, and ABC technicians got him to the track just in time to take the blocks. He finished second to Borzov but qualified for the next round. Taylor went on to take the silver medal; his teammates were disqualified. Hart ran the anchor for the 4 × 100-mcter relay team that won the gold medal in world-record time. Other gold medals in track and field went to Vince Matthews in the 400 meters, Dave Wottle in the 800 meters, Frank Shorter in the marathon, and Rod Milburn in the 110-mctcr hurdles.

Spitz and the Swimming Team

The U.S. swimmers dominated the competition. The men's and the women's team won nine gold medals each and set a total of twelve world records. The star of the team was Mark Spitz. He won seven gold medals, in four individual and three team events, and he or his team set a world record to match each of the medals. The women swimmers set six world records in winning their nine gold medals, paced by Keena Rothhammer, Melissa Belote, and Karen Moe.

WHO'S RUDE?

Dwight Stones was the best high jumper in America during the 1970s but he was never at his best in Olympic competition. He was expected to take a gold medal in 1972 in Munich, but he could manage only a bronze. The Montreal games in 1976 were his last chance at the Olympic record books. But Stones let his tongue beat him.

The Canadians were sensitive about accommodations in Montreal, and with good cause. The various Olympic venues cost them $1.5 billion and revenues were not nearly high enough to cover the cost. When the games began, the roof on the stadium where track and field events were held was not finished, and if it rained, the field got wet. So when Stones, now a world record holder in the high jump, complained that his performance might be affected should it rain, matters were bad enough. But when he went on to accuse the French Canadians of rudeness in not planning better for his arrival, the Olympic hosts exploded. Stones was excoriated in local newspapers, and the mere mention of his name at the games was enough to cause booing and hissing. When nationalistic Americans took offense, there were even fistfights. Every time Stones took the field for competition, the unfinished Olympic stadium erupted with shouts of disapproval. Stones's appearance on the second day of the competition in an "I Love French Canadians" t-shirt did not help. Officials made him take it off, and when he had a Nike shirt underneath, they made him take that off too. Then it rained.

Stones finished fourth in the high jump, slogging through a wet approach to his jumps. The Canadians felt it was better than he deserved but good enough to claim cosmic retribution.

Foul Play

Outside the swimming pavilion the U.S. team had a rough time. The gymnasts were shut out of gold medal contention, as was the boxing team. When boxer Reggie Jones lost a decision against a thoroughly beaten-up Russian opponent, there was nearly a riot in the audience. In the heavyweight wrestling competition, 412-pound Chris Taylor wrestled his 231-pound Ukrainian opponent Aleksandr Medved to a draw but lost the match when the referee deducted a point from Taylor for passivity. The Ukrainian won the gold medal; Taylor, who won all the rest of his matches, got a silver; and the referee was dismissed from the Olympics for his bad decision. The U.S. men's basketball team had won sixty-two straight games going into the finals against the Soviets. The game was apparently over, with the Americans ahead 50-49, when there was a dispute about the time. Three times the Soviets were given the ball for the final shot of the game, and after the second time, three seconds were added to the game clock. The Soviets scored, finally, and were awarded the game. The American team refused to accept their silver medals, and American coach Hank Iba filed a formal protest. His pocket was picked while he was registering his complaint.

Tragedy

The defining moment of the 1972 Games occurred on the morning of 5 September when eight Arab terrorists broke into the Israeli compound, murdered two athletes, and kidnapped nine others. The Arabs, members of the terrorist organization Black September, demanded the release of two hundred Arab guerrillas held in Israeli prisons. After the terrorists had moved to a Munich airport, they were stormed by an Israeli antiterrorist team, and all nine of the hostages were killed along with five of the terrorists. Three of the Arabs were captured. It was later acknowledged that the rescue operation was approved by Golda Meir, premier of Israel; Willy Brandt, chancellor of West Germany; and Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee. The games were suspended for thirty-four hours, and a memorial was held for the slain athletes in the main stadium.

Medal Count. At the conclusion of the games the Soviet total of ninety-nine medals, including fifty gold, and the American team's second-place total of ninety-three medals, of which thirty-three were gold, seemed to have diminished significance.

THE OLYMPICS: 1980

The Winter Games

The XIII Winter Olympics were held in Lake Placid, New York, from 12 to 24 February and included athletes from thirty-seven nations. It was the second time the Winter Games were held in the tiny upstate New York town, the first time being in 1932. Despite horrendous transportation problems the 1980 Winter Games were, as described by one observer, "a glistening festival in which superb athletes performed their feats in superb surroundings." Fortunately, the United States-led movement to boycott the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow because of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan had virtually no effect on the competition. Instead, the most noteworthy political controversy of the games was the absence of the Taiwanese team, who petitioned the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to be excused from the games due to the presence of a team from the People's Republic of China. Politics aside, the 150-member U.S. team enjoyed the advantage of hosting the games and did well, finishing third in the final medal standings, behind East Germany (23 total medals) and the Soviet Union (22), with a total of 12 medals (6 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze). Moreover, American athletes provided the Winter Games with two of its most extraordinary, memorable, and historic performances.

America's Golden Boy

Over the course of eight days American speed skater Eric Heiden turned in an epic performance. The twenty-one-year-old Heiden won gold medals and set Olympic records in all five of the events in which he participated: the 500-, 1,000-, 1,500-, 5,000-, and 10,000-meter races. In so doing he became the first athlete ever to win five gold medals in individual events in one Olympics. He alone won more gold medals than any American team had in the Winter Games since 1932. By the end of the Winter Games he had become a speed-skating immortal. It should not lessen his accomplishments to note that Heiden's victories were expected. Before the competition began, Heiden was already considered the best speed skater in history. One commentator argued that "Heiden outstrips human comparison: he is [like] Secretariat, stronger, faster, possessed of a greater racing heart than has ever been known." A near-perfect combination of speed, power, stamina, technique, discipline, and competitive desire, Heiden was described by Thomas Boswell as a "young man whose name will go down with the greats of Olympic history." In recognition of his tremendous Olympic performance, Heiden was awarded the 1980 Sullivan Award as the nation's outstanding amateur athlete.

Miracle on Ice

The U.S. hockey team's improbable 4-3 victory over the Soviets on 22 February ranks as one of the greatest upsets in the history of American sport and the Olympic Games. "For millions of people, their single, lasting image of the Lake Placid Games will be the infectious joy displayed by the U.S. hockey team following its 4—3 win over the Soviet Union," wrote E. M. Swift. The surprising victory led to euphoric, patriotic celebrations all over the country. Two days later, the inspired American team beat Finland 4—2 to win the Olympic gold medal, again prompting a national outpouring of pride and joy. Going into the Games the U.S. club was ranked seventh among the twelve teams competing in the Olympics. Coached by Herb Brooks, the U.S. team was composed of overachieving, "fuzzy-cheeked" collegians who were given little chance of competing with the powerful Soviets, the reigning Olympic and world champions. The unheralded U.S. team, led by goaltender Jim Craig, captain Mike Eruzione, and center Mark Johnson, played aggressive, fearless hockey throughout the seven-game tournament. Though the game with the Soviets meant little to the players politically, many others saw the victory in geopolitical terms. "At a time when international tension and domestic frustration had dampened traditional American optimism," wrote Sports Illustrated, "the underdog U.S. Olympic hockey team gave the entire nation a lift by defeating the world's top team, the Soviets, and ultimately winning the gold medal. Those youngsters did so by means of the old-fashioned American work ethic, which some people feared was disappearing from the land." For their performance the U.S. hockey team was named Sportsmen of the Year for 1980 by Sports Illustrated.

The Games Went On

The XXII Summer Olympics began 19 July 1980 in Moscow and were the first Games ever held in a communist nation. While eighty-one countries participated the United States, led by embattled President Jimmy Carter, and sixty-four other countries boycotted the competition to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance had articulated the Carter administration's position before the IOC in February: "We will oppose the participation of an American team in any Olympic Games in the capital of an invading nation. This position is firm. It reflects the deep convictions of the United States Congress and the American people." Though many Olympic purists argued that the Olympics should be divorced from politics, others pointed out that politics had always been present in the Games. Conservative political columnist Lance Morrow noted that the Olympics were "an immense and garish parade of nationalism." Although President Carter's decision understandably embittered many American athletes, he steadfastly defended the Olympic boycott and asserted that it was "the only correct course for our country." The competition, opened by Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev, did not encounter any serious disruptions. There were, however, a few minor protests throughout the Games, such as when New Zealand athletes carried a black flag with the Olympic symbol of five interlocking rings and an olive branch of peace during the opening ceremonies. The Soviet team won 197 medals (80 gold, 70 silver, and 47 bronze), far outdistancing its nearest rival. East Germany ended up with 126 total medals, followed by Bulgaria (40), Hungary (32), and Poland (31). "No Games, of course, could be representative of world sport without the Americans," wrote one observer. "The 1980 Olympics were always going to be a makeshift affair from the time the American government decided on a boycott. To the Olympic medal winners, though, a medal is a medal, whoever happened to be or not to be competing. The Games is already history, and the boycott will be a progressively smaller detail of that history as time passes." Unfortunately, the 1980 boycott would have a tremendous impact on the 1984 Summer Olympiad in Los Angeles.

Sources:

Peter Arnold, The Olympic Games: Athens 1896 to Los Angeles 1984 (London: Optimum, 1983);

Allen Guttmann, The Olympics: A History of the Modern Games (Urbana 6c Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992);

John Hoberman, The Olympic Crisis: Sporty Politics and the Moral Order (New York: Caratzas, 1986);

Ben Olan, ed., The Olympic Story 1980: Pursuit of Excellence (Danbury, Conn.: Grolier Enterprises, 1980);

Martin Vinokur, More Than A Game: Sports and Politics (New York: Greenwood Press, 1988);

Tim Wendel, Going For The Gold (Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill, 1980).

THE OLYMPICS

Canceled Games

The International Olympic Committee faced awesome difficulties planning the 1940 Olymiad. The games were first scheduled to be held in Japan, but in 1938 the Japanese were preoccupied by their conflict with the Chinese and withdrew as the host country. The IOC then awarded the games to Helsinki, Finland, whose plans were interrupted when the Russians invaded in 1939. By that time it was clear that world events were too chaotic to allow for the Olympics. The war forced cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 games, and many believed that the depth of international hatred aroused by the war would end the Olympics altogether. But in 1945 the International Olympic Committee met in bomb-scarred London to plan the 1948 games for that city. The German blitz had devastated much of London; housing was at a premium; everything from food to transportation was rationed. Critics and naysayers abounded. The bickering set a new Olympic record for acrimony, and ultimately Japan, Germany, and Italy were barred from competing. The Soviet Union, which had not participated in an Olympiad since the Russian Revolution of 1917, did not participate this time either.

Summer Olympics

London was ill-prepared but eager for the Olympics. For the most part the games were held in existing facilities as the British could spare neither the money nor the materials to construct an Olympic village. Male athletes stayed at an army camp in Uxbridge; the women, in dormitories at Southland College. The weather did not cooperate. It rained almost every day during the competition, and on the rare occasions when the sky was clear the track remained soggy. Eager to put the war behind them, fifty-nine countries entered the 1948 games, more than in any other Olympiad, but relatively few records were set. The conditions were less than ideal, and many of the world's best athletes were either injured, distracted, or out of condition because of war.

1948 Summer Games

In men's track and field, the core of the games, the United States demonstrated convincingly that it still had world-class talent. The Americans won eleven events, Sweden five, and eight other countries one each. For the first time in Olympic history, no competitor won more than one individual track and field event. The darling of the Olympics was clearly the American boy wonder, Bob Mathias. Only seventeen, Mathias earned the title of world's greatest amateur athlete during the 1948 Olympics by winning the grueling decathlon. Since the days of Jim Thorpe, the decathlon had been the supreme test of track and field ability and versatility. A natural athlete, Mathias trained for only a month before his first decathlon competition against college stars, and he won. Six weeks later he was in the Olympics, competing against experienced athletes from around the world. When asked, after the gold medal ceremony, "What are you going to do to celebrate?" Mathias answered, "Start shaving, I guess." He also won the United States decathlon championship in 1949 and 1950. He became the star running back for the Stanford football team in 1951 and returned to the Olympics in 1952 to win a second gold medal in Helsinki. The Olympics were also a special time for American sprinter Harrison "Bones" Dillard, who not only took home the gold in the 100-meter, but defeated Mel Patton, holder of the world record in that event. In the 1952 Olympics Dillard won the 110-meter high hurdles as well, adding another gold medal to his collection. Two military men were gold medal victors: U.S. Army Air Force Sergeant Mai Whitfield broke the world record in the 800-meter run, and Sammy Lee, a Korean-American who served as an eye, ear, and nose specialist in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, won the high-diving event. The U.S. basketball team, led by Bob "Foothills" Kurland, won easily, and in heavyweight weight lifting the American hero was John Henry Davis, a Brooklyn mechanic who hoisted a combined 997 pounds in the military press, the snatch, and the clean and jerk. He was a repeat winner in 1952.

Winter Olympics

At the Winter Olympics in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, the United States took gold medals in skiing and figure skating for the first time in Olympic history. Gretchen Fraser won the slalom, while eighteen-year-old Dick Button glided to victory in the men's figure skating, becoming a favorite of spectators. Button, from Englewood, New Jersey, was not only the first American to win a gold medal in figure skating, he produced the highest point total in Olympic history: 994.7 in compulsory figures and 191.77 in free skating. When the games ended in February, the United States took home three gold medals, four silver, and two bronze, the best American showing in Winter Olympic history. The United States finished behind only Sweden and Switzerland.

ATTACK TENNIS

In 1947 Jack Kramer became the indoor as well as outdoor champion of American tennis using a powerful offense. In the first four tournaments of the year, Kramer did not lose a set or even allow anyone to break his serve. Coach Mercer Beasley called it "tennis without defense. Everything is attack these davs."

Sources:

William Oscar Johnson, The Olympics: A History of the Games (Montgomery, Ala.: Oxmoor House, 1978);

John Kieran and Arthur Daley, The Story of the Olympic Games, 776 B. C. to 1972 (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1973);

Dick Schaap, An Illustrated History of the Olympics (New York: Knopf, 1975).

THE OLYMPICS: 1976

Innsbruck

The 1976 Winter Olympics were held at Innsbruck, Austria, in the Tyrolean Alps, from 4 to 15 February. For Americans, all of the winning opportunities came on the ice. Figure skater Dorothy Hamill upset the reigning world champion Dianne de Leeuw to win the gold medal in figure skating. Her coach, Carlo Fassi, had the unusual distinction of also coaching the winner of the men's gold medal in figure skating, John Curry from Great Britain. Peter Mueller won the gold in the 1000-meter speed skating, and Sheila Young set an Olympic record in winning the gold in the 500 meters. Young, who also won a silver in the 1500 meters and a bronze in the 1000 meters accounted for nearly a third of the ten medals won by the United States team.

Boycotts

The Summer Olympics held in Montreal, Canada, began with the political controversy that had come to be identified with the games in the postwar period. This time the New Zealand team was the center of attention. New Zealand had sent a rugby team to play in South Africa, and the black African nations wanted that country banned from Olympic competition as a result. Tanzania led the black African protesters, and they were joined by Iraq and Guyana. Taiwan boycotted because the Canadians insisted that they not call themselves the Republic of China. By the time the games were declared in progress on 17 July, thirty-two nations had for some reason announced a boycott, leaving eighty-eight nations to compete with teams that included 4,834 men and 1,251 women.

Costs

Security at the 1976 games was heavy. It was estimated that over $15,000 was spent on security for each of the visiting athletes, a total of about $100 million. The city of Montreal and the province of Quebec had to construct most of the facilities for the games. The total cost was some $1.5 billion, and the Canadians were left with a deficit of about $1 billion at the end of the games.

Disappointment

The U.S. team's overall performance was disappointing. Only two women won individual gold medals, Luann Ryon in archery and Jennifer Chandler in springboard diving. The U.S. women's swimming team won the 400-meter freestyle relay but no other gold medals, a stark contrast to the splendid showing in the 1972 games. U.S. men won only six gold medals in the track-and-field competition, but that included the decathlon win by Bruce Jenner, which was particularly satisfying. Edwin Moses in the 400-meter relay, Arnie Robinson in the long jump, and Mac Wilkins in the discus accounted for the other individual golds.

Gold

The Americans were buoyed by the outstanding performance of the men's swimming team, which won twelve gold medals, plus the gold in the springboard diving competition. Backstroker John Nabor broke the world record twice on his way to a win in the 100-meter race, and in the 200 meters he set a world record again and was the first ever to break the two-minute barrier. He won two more gold medals in team relay events.

Boxing

The media stars on the American team were the boxers. Coming off a very disappointing performance in 1972, the American boxers felt they had something to prove. They were cocky and well-coached; moreover, they included the most talented class of amateurs in many years. By the end of the competition the Americans had won five of the eleven events, and they did so with unusual style. Eighteen-year-old Leo Randolph, who won unexpectedly in the flyweight division, called his victory the best thing that had happened to him since he became a Christian. Twenty-year-old Howard Davis vowed to win the gold for his mother, who died two days before the Olympic competition began; Davis disposed of two of his five opponents in first-round knockouts. Personable light welterweight Sugar Ray Leonard tucked a photo of his girlfriend and their two-year-old son in his sock before dancing his way to a series of popular one-sided wins. The Spinks brothers, Michael and Leon, cheered one another to middleweight and light heavyweight medals. The members of the 1976 boxing team dominated professional boxing during the 1980s.

Team Standings

The team competition ended as it usually did, with the Soviets winning most medals overall (125 total, 47 gold) and the United States second in total medals (94 total, 34 gold); the East Germans won 90 total medals and 40 gold. The Americans took considerable satisfaction in regaining the men's basketball championship but were denied the pleasure of beating the Soviets in the finals. The U.S. team beat the Yugoslavs 95-74.