By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The longer than usually awaited XXXII Olympic games are getting closer.
The 2020 Summer Olympics, also known as Tokyo 2020,were postponed because of a global situation. The international gathering of athletes from around the globe simply had to be put aside until things were better. Now scheduled for July 23- August 8, the Summer Olympics is just days away guaranteeing plenty of triumph and some tragedy.
Sports is the original “Reality TV” and the Olympics has been the biggest stage.
For decades we’ve witnessed human emotions play out on the track, basketball court, softball field and other venues.
Prior to my birth in 1981, some memorable Olympic moments from the winter and summer games include the 1980 U.S. Hockey team upset of the Soviets, Nancy vs. Tonya, Jesse Owens shutting up Hitler in 1936, the terrorist attacks in Munich in 1972 and the U.S. Basketball team being robbed of a gold medal in those same Games.
The Olympics has been a political platform from the Black Pride protest in 1968 with Tommie Smith and John Carlos to the Soviet Union and United States boycotting the Games hosted by the opposing country.
For this Best Sellers’ List, I want to focus on the positive. We’ve gone an extra year without the Summer Games. And I enjoy the Summer Olympics much more than the Winter Games.
I am about to provide 10 moments the United States Olympic team brought me joy. Here are the best Olympic moments of my lifetime.
10. Katie Ledecky breaks record at 15
London 2012
America loves a new sweetheart. To qualify as an “American Sweetheart” you must be a young girl, do something really awesome and have a smile that melts a majority of hearts.
At the tender age of 15, Katie Ledecky snatched the headlines and hearts of most U.S. Americans with a historic and powerful performance in the pool.
She was one of the biggest stars of the London games winning gold in the 800m freestyle in her first international competition.
To prove her debut performance wasn’t a fluke, Ledecky went to Rio four years later and won the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyles. She set two world records and picked up two more medals in relays.
9. Introducing Greg Louganis
Seoul 1988
Greg Louganis wasn’t quite a household name in 1988. Despite winning golds in 1984 in Los Angeles, it was in Korea he became a media sensation. Louganis won two gold medals at the 1988 Summer Games. He became first male diver to sweep the diving events for the second straight Olympics.
The difference in his 1988 performance on the diving board was overcoming a concussion and cutting his head open. Louganis’ cranium stroke the diving board in the preliminaries. The “Dive of Death” almost took him out.
8. Best Basketball Team ever
Barcelona 1992
Since 1972, it seemed international basketball had a target on the U.S.A Basketball Team. With the Americans dominating the sport for many years, that run came to an end in 1988. Grown men were beating up on our best college players. U.S.A. Basketball struck a deal with the NBA to create the The Dream Team. Two reasons why this memory doesn’t rank higher is because the Dream Team killed the competition in Barcelona. And the main reason for a drop in my ranking is no Isiah Thomas.
But the Dream Team have the iconic Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Larry Bird, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Christian Laettner, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley. This team won games by average of 40 points led by Coach Chuck Daly.
7. Jason Lezak’s helps Phelps
Beijing 2008
To have individual greatness takes teamwork. Michael Phelps was eying the gold medal record of fellow swimmer Mark Spitz of seven. Just one medal not won, Phelps is not breaking the “Mark.” Phelps went to the pool for the 4x100m freestyle relay. That set the stage for Jason Lezak’s greatest relay leg of all time.
Phelps swam the first leg of the race and set a U.S. record with his 47.51-second split. But his team fell behind the French over the next two legs.
Trailing, Lezak dove in the pool for the anchor leg. Using all his speed and strength, Lezak caught the French final swimmer at the flags and win the race. That 46.06-second split kept Phelps in line for history.
6. Beating the
Unbeatable
Sydney 2000
The boy from a small town in Wyoming shocked the world. Rulon Gardner arrived in Sydney just happy to be a part of the U.S. Wrestling team. In his weight class was the Russian Aleksandr Karelin. Karelin had not lost a competition in 15 years and had won three straight gold medals. Gardner found himself sharing the mat with this living legend. Gardner rose to the challenge and did the unthinkable. The man from Wyoming pulled off the biggest upset in Olympic Wrestling history to take the gold medal. His tears and cartwheel will live in our minds forever.
5. Still the fastest woman alive
Seoul 1988
Florence Griffith Joyner left us too soon. But Flo-Jo will live forever with her style and speed still transcendent. Joyner dominated the track and field in 1988 improving on her 1984 performance. In addition to her silver medal in the 4x400m, Joyner set records in the 100m and 200m events. She added a gold as part of the 4x100m relay team.
The “Fastest Woman in the World” added to her legend with that Olympic.
4. Leaping Walk-Off
Atlanta 1996
Already a legend and Olympic icon, Carl Lewis could have rode off into the sunset happy with 8 career gold medals. But his ninth medal was just feet away. The men’s long jump was one of many great American moments in Atlanta. There were 54 competitors from 41 nations, including Lewis.
Lewis won the event back in 1984, 1988 and 1992. He made it four in a row by pulling off a leap of 27-feet, 10 and ¾ inches. The old man did it. The 35-year-old Lewis pulled off the upset in a stacked field of competitors.
The legend left the Olympic stage on the top podium and with gold around his neck one more time.
3. Mary Lou Retton smiles
Los Angeles 1984
The first American Sweetheart of my life was Mary Lou Retton. Her energy and magnetic smile was on cereal boxes, T-shirts and my TV. This gymnastic fireball put her sport on the map in the United States.
Taking place in Los Angeles, Retton had a performance fit for a Hollywood script. Retton’s moment on the worldwide stage maybe inspired a generation of American gymnasts to follow her.
The pint-sized 16-year-old from West Virginian became the first American woman to win a gold medal in all-around gymnastics. She went on to become “Sportswoman of the Year” for Sports Illustrated and also was featured on a Wheaties box after the Olympics.
2. Golden Shoes
Atlanta 1996
For all of us who love the Olympics, there is the moment when you connect and the event becomes larger than life. My moment came when Michael Johnson sported the gold shoes to win the 400m and 200m races in storybook fashion.
The trademark upright running style made Johnson look like he was marching through the air. Johnson became the first man to win both of those events in a year, and setting records for both competitions. “The Man With the Golden Shoes” provided all the heat needed for that night in Georgia.
1. Strug it off
Atlanta 1996
An image we all still remember and a moment that inspires us still today, Kerri Strug leads Team USA to its first team gold with a sprained ankle.
Our sweethearts known as the “Magnificent Seven,” had to take the Russians with all their abilities and strength. The crew of Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Dominique Dawes, Kerri Strug, Amy Chow, Amanda Borden, and Jaycie Phelps were in position to make American history. In position to take down the favorites and all over nations, the U.S. Needed Strug to pull off a great vault. Needing a score of 9.493 to win the team event, Strug landed improperly on her first vault injuring her ankle. With some coaching and encouragement from Béla Károlyi, Strug summoned up all her might to attack the runaway and execute a beautiful vault. She landed on one leg, posed and provided smiles for the camera. On a wounded ankle, Strug delivered the gold and a moment in history for Team USA.
THOMAS SELLERS JR. is the editor of The Millington Star and both the sports editor and a weekly personal columnist for West 10 Media/Magic Valley Publishing. Contact him by phone at (901) 433-9138, by fax to (901) 529-7687 and by email to [email protected].
