Word: lisovskaya
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Dates: during 1988-1988
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...weeks after Claudia Losch of West Germany won a 1984 Olympic gold medal with a shot put of 67 ft. 2 1/4 in., Natalia Lisovskaya took that event at the Soviet bloc's boycott-inspired Friendship Games with a throw almost 5 ft. longer. Barred by politics in 1984 from a chance at world sport's most enduring honor, Lisovskaya began training at Moscow's Brothers Znamensky Sports School for Seoul...
Shot-Putter Lisovskaya, a prime example of the Soviet approach, began her programmed life at a "sports-oriented" school in her native Tashkent at age seven. She was spotted as a potential champion at 14. Coach Faina Melnik saw her during a scouting trip and persuaded her to move to Moscow as soon as she finished high school. A discus thrower at the time, she tried the shot at Melnik's suggestion and soon switched, a daring decision for an athlete already in her late teens. Within four years, helped by careful coaching and a training regimen...
...other end of the comfort scale from Lisovskaya is Mario Martinez. He already has an Olympic medal -- the silver for super heavyweight lifting in 1984; he captured three gold medals at the 1987 Pan Am Games and placed tenth in the 1987 world championships. But Martinez gets no state subsidy, no help from a national council for his sport to pay for his San Francisco apartment. With a wife and one-year-old daughter to support -- not to mention a special diet to maintain his 318 lbs. of muscle -- Martinez, 31, cannot exercise six or seven hours a day like...
...true competition. In 1988 in Seoul, as in 1976 in Montreal, some Soviets will do better than expected, and some Americans will surprise even themselves. Some obscure athletes will overcome a lack of support, and some highly trained ones will be off form on the fateful day. But for Lisovskaya and Louganis and all their counterparts, this time there will be no "if onlys," no implied asterisks next to their achievements. What is special for U.S. and Soviet athletes about these Games is that they are no longer special: once again they are, as they should be, for everyone...
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