Word: oerter
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...more dissimilar Olympians would be hard to imagine. Al Oerter is 32 and white, a hulking 260-pounder who lives with his wife and two children on suburban Long Island and works as supervisor of the computer communications department at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. Bob Beamon is 22, black and bearded, a gangling 160-lb. product of the streets of New York who attends the University of Texas at El Paso on a track scholarship-and says that he would rather be playing basketball. Last week in Mexico City, each in his own way demonstrated what the Olympic Games...
...There is a special inspiration at the Olympics," says Oerter. It is an inspiration that has driven him to triumph over his own physical limitations. Not once has Oerter gone to an Olympics as a favorite. In 1956 at Melbourne, the U.S.'s Fortune Gordien was picked to win; in 1960 at Rome, Rink Babka, another American, expected to take the gold medal; in 1964 at Tokyo, CzechoSlovakia's Ludvik Danek was the reigning world recordholder. Last week the man to beat was the U.S.'s Jay Silvester, who only a month before had broken the world...
...Tokyo, Oerter had more than a bad neck to bother him; he was hemorrhaging from a ripped rib cartilage, and still he set an Olympic mark of 200 ft. 1½ in. In Mexico City, he slipped in the rain-soaked discus ring and tore a thigh muscle. Relaxants and ice treatments numbed the pain for the finals, and on his third toss he won his fourth gold medal. Oerter immediately began thinking ahead to Munich in 1972-and the possibility of a fifth title. "I think I can continue to improve until...
...short dashes, California's Jim Hines clocked 9.9 sec. in the men's 100 meters to tie his own pending world record, and Georgia's Wyomia Tyus won the women's 100 in 11 sec. flat. Then, in the field events, there was Al Oerter's fourth straight discus victory and Bob Beamon's incredible long jump...
Then what? Well, if he gets bored, he can switch to the discus. Two weeks ago, just for kicks, he hurled one 201 ft. 5½ in.-a foot farther than Al Oerter's winning throw at the 1964 Olympics...