Word: world-class
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Spurred by the energy crunch, perhaps by the movie Breaking Away, the story of a youth intent on becoming a world-class racer, the country is developing a passion for pedaling. In 1983 the U.S. Cycling Federation issued 16,000 racing permits (9,000 in 1970); 10 million bikes will be shipped to stores for the country's 100 million riders. So it should have come as no surprise that 200,000 flag-waving aficionados gathered by the tile-roofed, half-a-million-dollar ranch homes in Mission Viejo, 50 miles south of Los Angeles...
Steve Hegg, 20, a world-class skier and relative newcomer to cycling, hopped on his Kevlar-cycle for the 4,000-meter individual pursuit race. In this two-man event, a competitor chases an opponent who starts on the opposite side of the banked track. If he catches him, it's over; otherwise, the fastest time wins. Hegg took Rolf Golz, an experienced racer from West Germany by 4 sec. for the gold. After squeaking through quarterfinals in the team pursuit, where four-man squads shift leads to rest in the slipstream, the U.S. cyclists confronted the highly favored...
...physique seems a match for the colossal arena where men once fought and died. Yet brawn alone did not make Italy's Francesco Damiani, 25, the European champion in the amateur super-heavyweight division. Much of the credit belongs to his older brother Marco, who struggled to become a world-class boxer despite the handicaps imposed by childhood polio. Realizing at last that the dream was beyond his grasp, Marco pushed the oversize, underachieving Francesco into the ring instead. Says the younger brother now: "I would love to have seen Marco prove himself...
Benoit took to running eleven years ago, at 16, as therapy after a skiing accident. Where most world-class runners gravitate to shinier training sites, Benoit remains partial to Portland, Me., even in the icy winter. "People in Maine respect me for who I am, not for what I've accomplished," she says. "I have no hassles out on the roads. I'm just another Mainer." Norway's Grete Waitz, 30, whom Benoit has never beaten, is favored to take the gold medal. But Benoit arrives at the Games with a sense of having already won something...
...Arias, who made more than $1 million playing tennis last year, qualifies because he's under 21, while a true amateur by N.C.A.A. standards could be excluded simply because he's too old. It's ridiculous." No less ridiculous, Wide Receivers Willie Gault and Renaldo Nehemiah, world-class trackmen who unsuccessfully sued to be allowed to compete in the Games, are considered somehow contaminated for foot races against the amateur Lewises because they earn their livings playing football...