Word: oerter
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...more surprised than Ben Plucknett when he broke the world discus record this month with a toss of 237 ft. 4 in. That was a stunning 14 ft. better than his best throw last year when Plucknett edged out Al Oerter to make the U.S. Olympic team, and it came at a time when the California athlete said he was so tired from overtraining that "this shouldn't be happening...
...Though the U.S. Olympic Committee went to pains to emphasize the importance of the Trials and call attention to a number of international events later this year for the qualifiers, most athletes agreed that an olive wreath by any other name does not smell as sweet. Said Al Oerter, 43, the discus thrower who won gold medals in the 1956, '60, '64, '68 Games and who was trying a comeback after twelve years of retirement: "This is not an Olympic Trials. I can tell because I've been sleeping. At past Trials, I analyzed my technique...
Among U.S. athletes, the dominant sentiment seemed to be against a boycott, but the debate was spirited. Protested Steve Lundquist, 19, a swimmer from Southern Methodist University: "You look forward to this all your life. Suddenly they just pull it out from under you." At first Al Oerter, 43, a four-time gold medal winner in the discus, complained that U.S. withdrawal from the Games was "passive, isolationist, weak." But like many other athletes he had changed his mind by last week. Said he: "I feel we should stop bellyaching and get behind the President. It is time...
...prodigious leap. Then there are the form favorites who somehow fail to produce their best at the Games. In the men's discus throw, four world record holders in a row have missed winning the gold medal; each time it went to the same man: steady, nerveless Al Oerter...
...final at the U.S. trials, he was jarred off balance and finished third, behind Tom Hill and Willie Davenport. Milburn still ranks as the favorite, but he is clearly not invincible. In the discus, Jay Silvester of Orem, Utah, was the world record holder beaten by Al Oerter in 1968. He holds the record again (224 ft. 5 in.) as he goes to Munich, and Oerter has retired. But Silvester's top competition, Ricky Bruch of Sweden, has not. Once notorious for his temper tantrums and a tempestuous love life, the bearded "Giant from Skane" seems to have settled...