Word: barcelona
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...have more work to do; the women can savor the fruits of a building project four years in the making. Though the U.S. women won a bronze medal in Barcelona, the program was plagued by controversy. The coaches were fractious, the girls looked unhappy and undernourished, and criticism began to emerge that the program drove adolescent girls too hard in service of demanding parents and coaches. Much of the criticism was aimed at Karolyi, the former Romanian coach who brought the world Nadia Comaneci and later trained such U.S. stars as Mary Lou Retton and Kim Zmeskal...
...then the glaring sun disappeared over the shoulders of the trumpeters on the crest of the stadium, the countdown to the opening ceremony picked up steam (Athens 1896, Paris 1900...Barcelona 1992), and the show was under way. In moments the stadium found itself sheathed in fabric of the five Olympic colors as members of five different tribes poured out and flew down onto the field. Little white sprites appeared, dancing to the irresistible beat and weaving their way through the tribes. Out of the delirious chaos came a formation, and presto, the tribes became the Olympic rings, and then...
...riches phase, he politely wishes that everyone else would please just move on too. The decathlete is tired of what has become his 11th event, talking about his previous failings--the way he mysteriously flubbed the pole vault in the 1992 Olympic trials, thereby blowing his star turn in Barcelona; the way his college partying sometimes got the best of him. But O'Brien understands too that the past exerts a pull and the future has not quite arrived...
...Brien first came to public attention as the Dan half of the catchy 1992 Reebok ad campaign, "Dan and Dave," in which America's two best and most photogenic decathletes, O'Brien and Dave Johnson, were pitted against each other in anticipation of an exciting Barcelona matchup. When, hobbled by poor preparation, O'Brien no-heighted in the pole vault during the Olympic trials, he became, perversely, even more famous. Johnson went on to take the bronze, while O'Brien was left to choke down his embarrassment on the sidelines and serve as a track-and-field commentator...
...squad mixed with veterans from 1992 and new youth, and the support of a raucous crowd of 32,048, the team made history. "We've spent a long time waiting," said Mary Lou Retton, who led the team to silver in the boycotted 1984 games. "To win in Barcelona would have been marvelous. To do it at home is oh, so sweet." The gold seemed like a sure thing for the Americans until the final event, when 14-year-old Dominique Moceanu fell on consecutive vaults. Then up stepped Kerri Strug, who was the 14-year-old baby...