It would be nice if there were a sort of CSpan for the Olympics. No commentary, or very little, and the whole thing represented, every event, no partiality.
Hmmmm, my favorite Summer Olympian?
Jesse Owens
with Kip Keino coming in second.
Of the Summer Olympics i've seen myself I guess it would be Mark Spitz, because he impressed us so, and without the ethnocentric coverage that made you want to kick him. At least thats how I remember it.
He won 4 gold medals in a row from 1956 Melbourne to 1968 Mexico City. All in the Discus Throw ... I met him in college back in 1980 and he was very inspirational and a good motivator. I remember him getting the gold in 1964 (in Tokyo) and again in Mexico City ... 1968 on Television.
Oerter was the first athlete to win a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympics
Yes, I remember, because I think he even had a poster, a la Farrah or Cheryl Tiegs. He was good looking, but never was really interesting to me. I was more a fan of Bjorn Borg, who also had a poster. But he wasn't an Olympian so I digress.
Borg was great to watch. Besides, I don't think tennis was an Olympic sport then.
BTW, there is a very good ESPN documentary on Borg and John McEnroe. I had not idea but they were great friends. The documentary deals with their relationship. If you can ever catch, I don't know how, but it is worth the hour.
But I digress...
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
Tennis is one sport I really enjoy, Wimbledon in particularly, I remember cutting my teeth on the bouts between MacEnroe and Borg( I liked both but rooted for MacEnroe) and Chrissie Evert and Martina Navaratilova (Evert, thought why I don't know) I'd love to see that documentary. Andy Murray has finally beaten Roger Federer at Wimbledon to get Olympic Gold, hopefully he can pull it off next year at Wimbledon.
I like Mark Spitz, I was a babe in arms when he was winning his medals but I've seen him on quite a few programmes and he seems a nice guy.
I don't get the Kardashian reference but maybe that's a good thing
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Sue Sue Applegate wrote: One reason, as of late, that I enjoy haven of the SSO is that we keep it Kardashian-free.
And this is the only time you will hear that name out of me.
Allison:
It is a good thing. Here you can't quite get away from it. I've tried. There is also a documentary on Everett and Navritalova that details their friendship through the years. It is also quite good but I don't know how you'd get it in England. If you have some form of ESPN it might turn up.
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
I liked Billie Jean King, there was an interview with her on Bob Costas' late night show once that was AMAZING, years after her famous matches. I just barely remember her as a tennis player. I always liked Martina, she was so athletic. I liked the girl who grunted too, was that Monica Seles?
I mentioned Scott Hamilton because I remember in the years before my mom died, we liked to watch figure skating. She always loved it. I remember in the late seventies there were not very many interesting male skaters, this was when the U.S. was starting to focus more on athletics rather than artistic merit. One day we watched this little scrawny kid who had this great, beautiful routine, very artistic and kind of funny. He looked like he was going die before he got done with his routine, he was so skinny and frail. But then he would do these amazing things! Like back flips and leaps, he'd always come down and land perfectly, and keep going, even though we were sure he would faint from exhaustion, or his little legs would buckle. He was barely in the running at that time, very young and always coming in third, if that. My mom saw something in him, he was her favorite and mine, he just appealed to her because he had something to say in his routines and it turned out she was right. She just loved him and I wish she had lived to see Scott become a gold medal winner and the skating icon he became.
(Remember when it seemed that Australia ruled the tennis world?)
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
Favorite male skater - John Mischa Petkovich. A very aggressive skater. He may not have had as much grace but he had power. Female skaters? Peggy Fleming and Dorothy Hamill. Maybe they didn't do triple toe-loops and and really athletic moves but did they have grace and elegance.
Chris
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
We had Torvill and Dean, anyone heard of them? They performed an iceskating routine to Bolero in 1984 Olympics and got perfect 6.0's from every judge. They also danced a routine called Mack and Mabel based on Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand.
Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself - Charlie Chaplin
Alison, you and I are on the same wavelength. They deserved every one of those 6's. Fantastic skaters, very inventive and so fluid you can't see where one body left off and the other started. Brilliant!
