Word: olympiad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When the 22nd Olympiad closed Sunday, much of the world sighed with relief. The host Soviets had been afraid everything would go wrong. The boycotting Americans had feared everything would go right. And the rest of the free world fretted about whether they should have participated or stayed at home. The oldtime innocence was gone; politics had once again impinged on sport...
Otherwise the XXII Olympiad was a picnic for Warsaw Pact countries. The Soviets alone won some 30% of the total medals and 40% of the golds; the East Germans took about 20% of each. East-bloc nations piled up more than three quarters of the medals awarded. But many of the medals were tarnished by the absence of leading Western competitors...
...sports fans, they will be entering the second week of an imaginary Olympiad, hunching over the agate type in their sports sections and asking some tantalizing questions. What if Renaldo Nehemiah were running the 110-meter hurdles? What if Mac Wilkins were throwing the discus? What if Larry Myricks were competing in the long jump, and the U.S. basketball team were challenging the Soviets on their home court? Like home-team boosters everywhere, they will know the answers with a visceral certainty. Gold. Gold. Gold. So, too, will many Soviets, whatever face they put upon their diminished Olympiad...
Despite all that pomp, no one at the opening ceremonies of the XXII Olympiad last Saturday could forget that it was something less than the real thing. About 30 countries that had planned to send athletes decided not to because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Of the 81 countries participating, 16 staged symbolic protests during the opening-day parade by carrying Olympic banners rather than their national flags...
...opening ceremonies, and members spent much of the time debating the boycott. The meetings also produced a flap over the American flag. I.O.C. officials want to run it up the pole at the Games' conclusion, as protocol dictates, to signify the U.S. as the site of the 1984 Olympiad. White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler last week sent the I.O.C. a letter objecting to that plan, but the committee plans to stand fast. Meanwhile, the local organizers of the 1984 Los Angeles Games submitted an upbeat report on their preparations and promised to pay the estimated tab of $347 million...