Word: deckers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Heroes must be part of the answer. There are those like Jordan, Mary Decker, Carl Lewis who enter the Olympics with greatness already thrust upon them; one will test their performances against their reputations. Better still, sudden heroes always seem to emerge and establish themselves, often in sports one has dismissed as boring or has paid no attention to before. Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci created gymnastics for most Americans, not because Americans never heard of gymnastics, but because they had not seen the sport performed by virtuosos. A subtle surprise of the Olympics is how individuals can transform...
...would take stony faces indeed not to smile at the exuberance of Mary Decker. Her joy at competing seems irresistibly contagious. Says the top U.S. women's middle-distance runner: "I love to run." Some of Decker's zeal may stem from her childhood, the feuding and eventual divorce of her parents: "If you come out of things like that in the right frame of mind, you're just more competitive." Such resolve exacts a toll. Her relentless training has led to a series of injuries, including one that kept her out of the 1976 Olympics. Then came...
...Before a man can win four gold medals, he must qualify in four events, and Lewis did this with a flourish, though without posting any records. Fragile Sprinter Evelyn Ashford's gold-medal ambitions declined from three to two. Hurdlers Edwin Moses and Greg Foster rejoiced. Mary Decker found out she could run only as far as the law would allow. And a wound-up Methuselah named Ed Burke took a 16-lb. ball by the chain, swung it and flung it, and spun something wonderful...
...Mary Decker made light work of her 1,500-and 3,000-meter heats, but lost her legal argument that, in fairing to provide women with 5,000- and 10,000-meter opportunities, the Games unfairly discriminate. Said dissenting Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson last week: "The Olympic flame, which should be a symbol of harmony, equality and justice, will burn less brightly over the Los Angeles Olympic Games." But Decker jogged on. She qualified for the team by easily winning the 3,000 and seemed likely to staff the 1,500 as well...
...farm girl emerged, seemingly from nowhere, in a race near Cape Town last January. Striding barefoot, as she prefers, over the artificial Tartan, Budd ran the 5,000 meters in an amazing 15:01.83, shaving nearly 7 sec. from Mary Decker's world-record time. Although she runs with an unearthly determination-like "safari ants on the march," says her full-time coach, Pieter Labuschagne-her feat remains unofficial. The International Amateur Athletic Federation ousted South Africa in 1976 for its apartheid policies; the country is also banned from the Olympics...