Word: bubka
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That may help explain why even grandparents who have never heard of Sergei Bubka will shout along with the Games, and why half the world tunes in. If the first joy of following sports is seeing skill at work in a partisan cause, the second is watching surprise defeat expectation. Every hopeless cause is everybody's favorite, and every 1,000-to-1 shot seems like our hometown hero. The pleasure of watching Michael Jordan play is almost matched by the very different pleasure of seeing an Angolan accountant turned point guard play Michael Jordan one-on-one. That...
...Sergei Bubka, Unified Team...
...anyone seemed to have a lock on a gold medal this year, it was Soviet pole vaulter Sergei Bubka. He has virtually owned the event for the past four years, breaking the world record nine times and scoring ten of the 16 best jumps in the history of the sport. His real Olympic goal was not to beat the competition -- which seemed a foregone conclusion -- but to become the first man ever to soar over 20 ft., a threshold he had been flirting with all year...
...track-and-field meet that had already stunned the world with a drug scandal, a bumper crop of new records and some surprising upsets, the scene seemed to be set for Bubka to crash through the barrier. First he assured himself of a gold medal and an Olympic record with a jump of 5.9 meters, which translates into 19 ft. 4 1/4 in. Bubka then had the bar set at 20 ft. 1/4 in., took a look, and put away the dream for another year. "It has been a very long season," he explained. "I am very tired...
...most serene athlete on hand was Soviet Pole Vaulter Sergei Bubka, 22, who twanged himself 19 ft. 8 3/4 in. into the brief Russian night, the highest anyone has ever flown on a swizzle stick. Immediately, Americans started questioning chemistry. "He's souped-up," said Earl Bell, who finished third. Fourth-Place Vaulter Mike Tully allowed, "He's the best athlete in the world, but he has edges. It all comes down to the doctors: it may be they've figured a way to get around the drug testing. He's not a normal athlete; he's not a normal...