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Rather Dreadful, These Games
The unseemly end to Linford Christie's smashing Olympic career—he was disqualified after two false starts in the 100-meter final and last night failed to qualify in the 200—is merely one of the many British disappointments in Atlanta. Former world champion Colin Jackson did not place in the 110-meter hurdles; cyclist Graeme Obree, the world-record holder in the men's individual pursuit, was knocked out in the first heat; and Lynn Simpson, reigning world champ in slalom canoeing, endured an awful 160-penalty-point run. "I believe she was going up the river," says David Hunn, the British press attaché working his seventh Olympics. With 10 medals entering today's competition, Great Britain is destined to finish with its lowest total since winning 11 at the 1952 Helsinki Games, a fact that is threatening to cause a row back home. "I have a message for [Prime Minister] John Major," said British Olympic Association head Richard Palmer. "We need money." For Hunn, who will retire after the Games, the athletic failures have been part of a decidedly un-Olympian experience. "You wouldn't come to Atlanta by choice, now, would you?" said Hunn. "It's quite tacky. The people have been charming and helpful with any difficulties, but what they've frequently been unable to do is solve the problem." Well, we'll see if the Brits can solve their problem, which is even larger. The image of Kerri Strug and her teammates mounting the podium to accept their gold medals for the team competition marked a crowning moment in American gymnastics history. But can the U.S. sustain that success? Strug has already announced that she will forgo a scholarship to UCLA to pursue "commercial endorsements," but her chances of being on the 2000 team are probably remote no matter how she spends her competitive time over the next four years. And individual medalists Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes and Amy Chow are almost certainly retiring. From a team on which six of the seven athletes are 17 or older, only 14-year-old Dominique Moceanu has a realistic shot to be in Sydney in 2000. True, a matful of rising stars is ready to join Moceanu, among them Vanessa Atler, 14, of Canyon Country, Calif., the 1996 junior national champion; Atler's clubmate Jamie Dantzscher, 14; Alexis Brion, 14, of Virginia Beach, Va.; and Elise Ray, 14, of Columbia, Md. But U.S. gymnastics is still rife with politics and individual coaches who feud like medieval city-states. Unless that changes, the U.S. will be lucky to field as strong—and as unified—a team as it did this year.
Marie-José Pérec Marie-José Pérec has made some astonishing strides since she was born in poverty 28 years ago on the tiny island of Guadeloupe. Spotted when she was 16 at a track meet by a French coach who informed her that she had just beaten the French junior 200-meter record, Pérecmoved to Paris, where she became a sensation, working as a runway model for Paco Rabane and winning France's only track gold medal in Barcelona. La Gazelle, as she's called in the French press, now trains in Los Angeles. On Monday night Pérec took the most impressive steps of her life, running an Olympic-record 48.25 to become the first person to win the Olympic 400 twice. "My whole family saw my race," she said. "I can still feel their first kisses of affection." Tonight Pérec has designs of her own: to win the 200. "It is completely new for me, trying the 200 after the 400," she said after the first round of the 200. Of course, for La Gazelle, sampling something new is old hat.
NBC's breathless, pro-U.S. coverage continued yesterday when Today host Katie Couric called Michael Johnson "the world's fastest human." If memory serves, a certain Donovan Bailey won the 100 in a world-record 9.84 seconds and pretty well settled any dispute over who the swiftest man on the planet is. Of course, Bailey is a Canadian and isn't of much interest to NBC. Also, correspondent Jamie Gangel labeled Johnson "the world's greatest athlete." But until the decathlon winner is determined today, we won't be sure which athlete she slighted.
It seems one of the diving judges is a New Zealander named Robin Hood. We're surprised no one has tried to impress him with a 3-1/2 somersault in the Friar Tuck position.
A couple of years ago Doug Cress of Atlanta told his wife he wanted to find the "strangest way possible" to be a part of the upcoming Summer Games. "Well, we need 50 badminton line judges," said Sandra Cress, who is operations manager of the soccer competition for ACOG, "and right now we have none." So Cress took a course at Georgia State, eventually passed the U.S. Badminton Association certification test and today finds himself keeping his eye on the birdie during the gold medal match between Dong Jiong of China and Póul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen of Denmark. "This is not a sport where long experience is necessary," says Cress dryly. The keys, he says, are focusing on your line when the birdie starts heading downward and facing up to complaints in many forms and languages. "For 40 bucks a game," says Cress, "you don't need some of the abuse. You get the evil eye, you get players waving rackets at you, you get coaches going nuts. "But I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. Hey, in what other sport could you basically walk in off the street and find yourself at the Olympics?"
Andre Agassi There is debate over whether pro tennis players belong in the Olympics, and the failure of seven of the top 10 men to show up for the Games strengthens the argument against. Andre Agassi has gamely adopted the spirit—albeit in his own petulant, profane way—but his opponent in today's semifinal speaks volumes: 127th-ranked Leander Paes of India. Eight of the top 10 women were here, and as 1988 doubles gold medalist Pam Shriver says, the women seem to have more of an "emotional attachment" to the Games. Either the men should develop more of that attachment or they should leave the Olympics to the amateurs.
As we bid a fond Olympic adieu to the U.S. men's field hockey team this morning—at 8:30 the Americans face Malaysia in the important battle to stay out of 12th and last place—we encourage the retention of head coach Jon Clark. Sure, he embarrassed the U.S. Field Hockey Association before the Games when it became public that on his résumé he had exaggerated details about his playing career in Great Britain. Sure, he was unable to turn around the fortunes of the team, which went into today's game with an 0-25-2 Olympic record. But the guy is funny. Herewith a few moments with Mr. Clark, who has lost none of his sardonic British wit. On the idea that the 3-0 loss to South Africa was at least entertaining: "It was entertaining in Johannesburg, Capetown and Port Elizabeth." On his general mood about the game: "Livid, bordering on the sarcastic." On his team's error-prone offensive play: "We lived by the new rules of field hockey: Every time you get into your opponent's end, you meekly give up the ball." On his team's passive play: "We've tried the intellectual approach, and so far it hasn't worked. The IQ thermometer has slipped its temperature around the goal." Most of all, a U.S. men's field hockey coach needs a sense of humor. And Clark's our man.
SI Olympic Dailies
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