Word: oerter
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...their most idealistic, the Olympics are supposed to unite the world through sport. Yet any witness to the international medal race knows different--governments take these prizes seriously. So do their athletes. As American four-time discus champion Al Oerter once put it, "These are the Olympics. You die before you quit...
...first modern track-and-field athlete to win gold in four consecutive Olympics--only Carl Lewis has since accomplished that feat--but Al Oerter, the discus-throwing sensation of the 1950s and '60s, was decidedly low-tech. (A favorite training tool was a flip book that showed the movements of a hurler.) He won first place in the Games of 1956, '60, '64 and '68, in each case competing and setting Olympic records despite injuries. "These are the Olympics," he said. "You die before you quit." Oerter was 71 and died of heart failure...
...program may be the men's long jump. If Carl Lewis makes the team and Cuba's formidable Ivan Pedroso isn't recovered from a recent operation, the grand old man of American track can collect his fourth straight long-jump gold medal, which would tie him with Al Oerter, who had four straight in the discus...
...didn't like. He runs a ski college in Aspen, and has made volleyball and badminton instructional videotapes. Using high-speed cameras and computers, he has analyzed and critiqued the techniques of such star athletes as baseball's Reggie Jackson, pro-football quarterback Steve Grogan and Olympic stars Al Oerter (discus throw) and Edwin Moses (hurdles). In tennis, his coaching helped launch the careers of Tracy Austin, Eliot Teltscher and Jim Pugh (a mixed-doubles winner at Wimbledon this year...
When 47-year-old Discus Thrower Al Oerter wrecked his calf three weeks ago and abandoned his quest for a fifth gold-medal Games, sentiment took a tough loss. But it rebounded marvelously in the person of Hammer Thrower Burke, 44, the singular delight of the trials. His motto: "We must not step off life's parade." A veteran of the 1968 Olympics, Burke retired for twelve years, patented a hydraulic weight-lifting machine and sold it for $2 million. Five years ago, his two teen-age daughters helped him scrub the rust from the old ball and chain...