Word: ukrainians
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Podkopaev's had been a truly inspring story: the aspiring economist was born and raised in a small Ukrainian village, in a house without electricity, and had been hoping to use academics to save his family...
...more fragile, both physically and emotionally. Moceanu wobbled on the balance beam and was never in contention. Dawes and Miller, two stoic 19-year-olds, each made a major flub on the floor exercise and walked off sobbing, aware that their medal chances had vanished. That allowed the elfin Ukrainian Lilia Podkopayeva, the reigning world champion, to edge past three tough Romanians to win the gold...
FIELD EVENTS, DECATHLON AND HEPTATHLON More old-timers. In the pole vault, Ukrainian Sergei Bubka, 32, has ranked No. 1 for 11 of the past 13 years, and should be able to beat back a challenge from youngster Okkert Brits of South Africa, 23, and Russia's 1992 Olympic champion Maksim Tarasov, 25. Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor, 28, the only man ever to clear 8 ft., is a solid favorite if his knee holds up; British triple jumper Jonathan Edwards, 30, is the first man to hop, skip and jump 60 ft.; and Czech javelin thrower Jan Zelezny...
...inaugural track-and-field meet for Atlanta's Olympic stadium in May, two officials watch a Ukrainian pole vaulter prepare for his first jump. The vaulter has been rooted in hypnotic concentration for almost two minutes when, without warning, he explodes down the runway. His legs blur into the scorching stride of a 100-m sprinter, but his upper body is like no sprinter's on earth. It looks more like a bag of rocks lashed together with steel cable. He hauls all this bulk to the end of the runway, then plants 17 ft. of fiber glass into...
Bubka, 32, has been tilting at limitations for years, ever since he began vaulting at age 10 in the Ukrainian coal town of Lugansk, against the wishes of his father, a Soviet army sergeant. "It was a very hard time," he recalls. For nine years he persevered, unheralded, until the 1983 World championships in Helsinki. There he cleared 18 ft. 81/4 in. on his first try, a jump that won the gold and presaged dazzling things to come. So green was Bubka at the time that he failed to show up at the required press conference afterward; he had already...