Word: sport
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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After you convincingly demonstrated the absurdity of the amateur/professional classifications, I was stunned by your conclusion that "major leaguers" should be excluded from playing in the Olympics. If track athletes with seven-digit earnings can compete, why exclude pro-basketball players? Both play full time at their sport; both are paid to show up for competitions, win or lose; both should be allowed to compete in the Olympics...
Cyrano de Bergerac hung over the parapet, taunting the standards of 20th century swordsmanship. Bemused spectators at the Long Beach Terrace Theater were greeted by a brass ensemble energetically fanfaring the Olympics. Instead of programs, there were pamphlets explaining the sport. A packed 3,000-seat house cheered as the curtain rose on the finals of the men's foil fencing, held on stage. The rows of dignitaries and, yes, the TV cameramen looked very dignified in black tie. The judges on the floor presented elegant tuxedoed backs to the audience, even though their feet were pragmatically shod...
...delight in giving ten-minute explanations of the attack, parry, return and continuation, which make up a "fencing conversation," but which, to the untrained eye, are only a millisecond flash of two blades. In America, fencing competitions are incomprehensible to outsiders. "We are a small, poor, truly amateur sport," says Stephen Sobel, secretary of the U.S. Olympic Committee and a saber fencer. "We all know each other, and usually we just keep score on a scrap of paper...
...Olympic fencing team who in 1968 became the first woman to carry the U.S. flag at the opening ceremonies, traveled to world championships in Vienna and Rome, taking thousands of photographs, determined that in this Olympics, fencing would get "the elegance it deserves. It is the sport of kings. I want to see the blades move in the light against the black background!" One result: the shift from a more normal venue into a theater...
...seeing a different report. On their behalf, International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch formally protested to Chief Organizer Peter Ueberroth, but later retracted after closed-door bargaining. In a statement, the I.O.C. expressed "its satisfaction with ABC . . . and felt that international broadcasters had received appropriate coverage." In the sports that ABC has not highlighted in prime time, when attracting an audience is most urgent, coverage has tended to be a little more balanced. Boxing Reporter Howard Cosell spoke enthusiastically about athletes from a variety of nations and led the way in pointing up U.S. Welterweight Mark Breland...