Posted on: Aug 08, '08
Highlights of the Modern Olympic Games
One of the most dramatic feats of the Olympics was the triumph of the United States track and field team in 1896. Competing as unofficial representatives, the ten-man squad reached Athens barely in time to participate. They won nine out of 12 events.
In 1912 Jim Thorpe, a Native American, became the only man to win both the decathlon and pentathlon in one year. Officials canceled his record and took back his medals when they learned that he had played professional baseball. His medals were restored posthumously in 1982 (see Thorpe). In track and field, Jesse Owens, a black American, won four gold medals including a team medal in 1936 (see Owens). The first woman to win three individual gold medals was Fanny Blankers-Koen of The Netherlands. The first athletes to win the decathlon twice were Bob Mathias of the United States, in 1948 and 1952, and Daley Thompson of Great Britain, in 1980 and 1984. The first perfect 10.0 in Olympic gymnastics was scored by Nadia Comaneci of Romania, who received seven perfect scores and three gold medals in 1976.
In the 1964 Winter Games the Soviet speed skater Lidya Skoblikova was the first athlete to win four individual gold medals. Her feat was duplicated in the 1968 Summer Games by the Czech gymnast Vera Caslavska.
In 1972 the United States swimmer Mark Spitz won a record seven gold medals at a single Olympics. Swimmers John Naber of the United States and Kornelia Ender of East Germany each won four gold medals in the Summer Games in 1976.
The all-time individual medal winner was the American track athlete Ray C. Ewry, who won eight events in the 1900, 1904, and 1908 Games.
The 1972 Summer Games in Munich, West Germany, became a tragedy when Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Olympic team members from Israel. In a protest against a New Zealand rugby tour of South Africa about 30 African nations boycotted the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, Que. To protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan more than 60 countries, led by the United States, withdrew from the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow. The Soviet Union, which first participated in 1952, withdrew from the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
Scandals rocked the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. Ten athletes were disqualified after drug tests revealed steroid abuse. Charges of bias and incompetence in the officiating at the boxing events led to two-year suspensions for five Korean boxers and officials and several other judges and referees.
The 1992 games were unusual in that there were no more Soviet teams; the Soviet Union had split up in December 1991. The teams that participated from its former republics, sometimes still wearing the old Soviet uniforms, represented either now-independent Baltic states or the Commonwealth of Independent States, which had been formed from 11 of the former Soviet republics. Nevertheless, at the Winter Games in Albertville the Commonwealth's United Team came in second, after Germany, in number of medals won.
In the 1896 Olympic Games there were fewer than 500 athletes representing 13 nations. In 1988 the Seoul games drew entries from a record total of 160 countries. While the number of athletes who competed in Los Angeles did not surpass the high of 10,000 set at Munich in 1972, the 1984 games set records for the largest total attendance--almost 5.8 million people--and the most gold medals for one country--83 for the United States.
The centennial Olympic Games opened in Atlanta, Ga., with more than 10,000 athletes from a record 197 nations in attendance. The opening ceremonies, which began 16 days of athletic competition, featured a tribute to the ancient Greek games and slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Former world heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic torch, which completed a 84-day, 15,000-mile (24,000-kilometer) trek across the United States. The games featured 28 delegations that were participating for the first time, including athletes from the Czech Republic, FYROM, and Burundi, and Palestinians competing under the name Palestine. Tight security and Atlanta's hot and humid August weather were major concerns for Olympic organizers and those attending the games. In spite of security precautions, a homemade pipe bomb loaded with nails and screws exploded at a late-night concert in Centennial Olympic Park, killing one person and wounding more than 100 others. In addition, a Turkish television cameraman died of a heart attack while running to film the blast. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
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