Word: medalling
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...heroes."Unable to resist mentioning his own ongoing race, he lost the audience momentarily. Since the 1980 boycott, athletes have become sensitive on one subject. "I just don't like the Olympics to be a ploy for political things of any kind," said Pam McGee of the gold-medal women's basketball team, who brought along her twin sister Paula...
...terms of the Southland (7-Eleven) Corp.'s $1.2 million gift, every medal-winning Olympian was allowed to invite one guest on the caravan, and their choices were telling. Jeff Blatnick, the nation's most renowned Greco-Roman wrestler, asked Andrew Saris, the last man cut from the squad. Mary Lou Retton, whose gymnastics career required her to leave home two years ago, reached back to Follansbee, W. Va., for her old friend Lori Lombardi. Cyclist Steve Hegg's neighbor Doug Huffman used to pace him tirelessly in Dana Point, Calif. They went together to the parade...
...every medal winner came along. Indicating why he is the world's most splendid diver, Greg Louganis turned to practicing for the nationals. Several of the basketball players had appointments with agents, though Reserve Center Jon Koncak took the occasion of the tour and blessed freedom from Coach Bobby Knight to complete a honeymoon on hold since June. Romance was flourishing. Synchronized Swimmer Tracie Ruiz was surprised with a diamond engagement ring by the boyfriend she brought along...
Next I went to see Muhammad Ali in his West Hollywood mansion with the wide manicured lawns and the tall white flagpole. He was always worth a story. Perhaps he would tell me the one about his Olympic gold medal, how he had taken it from his neck after being refused service in a Louisville restaurant for being black and had thrown it with its bright ribbon twirling off a bridge into the Ohio River...
...seated behind a massive desk, laboriously attacking his mail with a foot-long brass letter opener. He told me that now he wishes he had the gold medal. "Everything's changed. I could buy the restaurant now." Slowly he mentioned the names of some of those responsible for the success of the civil rights movement in their various contradictory ways: Martin Luther King Jr., George Wallace, Robert Kennedy, Lester Maddox . . . The voice was muffled and much thicker than one had prayed. He spoke as if he had a handkerchief in his mouth. I suggested that maybe throwing the Olympic...