Word: montreal
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Regarding temperament, no athlete of the past eight years has logged more success or felt less appreciated than Edwin Moses, 28. After he and Mike Shine brought the U.S. both the gold and the silver in the 400-meter hurdles at Montreal in 1976, their joyous victory lap faded quickly. "I had a gold medal and a world record," Moses says, "but guys who had never competed in the Olympics were getting top billing over me." He reacted badly, and the popular descriptions of him in press accounts became "sullen" and "angry...
...When the Montreal excitement did not take, he perversely turned the early race into the most predictable event in track, until that became its own kind of drama. Moses won ten races in a row, then 20. "When I got to about 30 or 35, I remember saying to myself, 'Well, 41 races has been the most ever won by a hurdler.' " Since Aug. 26, 1977, Moses has not lost in 102 races, posting 18 of the best 20 times ever...
Stones' previous U.S. record (7 ft. 7¼ in.) was set in 1976, four days, unfortunately, after his second bronze Olympics. In Montreal, he griped about the stadium's (still) unfinished roof for a week, and ended up being psyched-out by a rain spot on the runway. Similarly noisy and self-destructive were his signature quarrels with amateur athletic officials, who declared him a professional in 1978 for taking $33,633 over the table in a televised "superstars" competition. When it started to appear that Stones would be shut out of an amateur's income...
...subjective side of the pool, California Diver Gregory Efthimios Louganis, 24, is held in such complete esteem that his Olympics may resemble a coronation more than a contest. The three-time world champion, who won a silver medal at Montreal, is considered a lock on the 3-meter springboard and merely the favorite on the 10-meter platform. His position in the sport is so proprietary that when a Soviet diver was fatally injured attempting a reverse 3½ tuck at a meet last summer, Louganis felt personally responsible for "pushing people to do these dives...
...subjects us to a similar analysis of his drinking and drug-taking. Nobody cared that Bill Lee smoked pot. One of the funniest things he ever did happened shortly after he was traded to the Montreal Expos. He told a writer that he "used" marijuana. The commissioner's office flipped out and sent a couple of stooges to investigate. He told them one of the biggest lies of all time: Yes, sir. I have used marijuana, but I never said I smoked it. I just put a little on my buckwheat pancakes every morning. They bought it. Even Abbie Hoffman...