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Show Thursday, August 7, 2008 SPRINGVILLE HERALD 11 Olympic Anecdotes Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson After lying dormant for more than 22 centuries, the modern Olympic Games were launched in 1896. Held in Athens (of course!), the first modern Olympiad attracted at-tracted the largest crowd ever to have assembled for a sporting event. The athletes ath-letes were truly amateurs so much so that, when I was in college, 1 threw the discus far enough to have won the gold medal at the 1896 Olympics. Don't be impressed. im-pressed. My toss only qualified quali-fied for third place at an intramural track meet at a small college. Today, many high-school girls throw the discus farther than I did. The greatest film ever made about the Olympics was "Chariots of Fire," the last G-rated movie to win the Oscar for Best Picture. This stirring story about the 1924 Olympics and the intersecting inter-secting athletic careers of Jewish Cambridge student Harold Abrahams and Scottish Scot-tish Christian-missionary-to-be Eric Liddell had a difficult time finding financial backing back-ing due to the Christian-Jewish Christian-Jewish themes. The project was rescued when a Muslim, Mus-lim, Dodi Al-Fayed (who died with Princess Diana in that tragic car crash), bankrolled bank-rolled the film. "Chariots of Fire" is undoubtedly the best movie ever made about the Olympics. Geopolitical affairs have often obtruded on the Olympic Olym-pic ideals of peace and global glob-al fellowship. The Games were Canceled during both world wars. One of the most memorable Olympics was in 1936, when American Ameri-can track star Jesse Owens, a black man, won four gold medals in Berlin exploding Hitler's dogma of Aryan supremacy. su-premacy. Who was the greatest Olympian of all time? Jim Thorpe, Nadia Comaneci, Carl Lewis, Katarina Witt? How about Abebe Bikila? The Ethiopian was one of ', only two .marathon runners run-ners to win gold twice. In , I960. Mr. Bikila ran bare S P E C I ALE VENT SJ8!ES883 re bay c;jlyi SPECIAL FINANCING OFFERED! PRE-ORDER WHILE YOU CAN! Come learn more about the wuriu a uiny , luxury, nign . " performance JfT:,.,! ooivntf and XT . embroidery system I V (M3DL Mon-Fri 10 am - 6 pm - Sat 268 West Center Street r WWII V1 foot, breaking the heart of the sports shoe companies seeking endorsements. He won again in 1964, only 40 days after undergoing an emergency appendectomy: What a lion-heart! In 1964, the blond, handsome hand-some American swimmer Don Schollander won gold and graced many magazine covers. In the '70s, one of my dates mentioned that she had a husband (those 70s sure were different!). Mar-lin, Mar-lin, the husband, became my close friend. In 1964, he had shared Schollander's national na-tional swim record, and his blondness and good looks, too. Marlin might have won gold, but he bypassed the Olympics to join the navy and see the world. Can you imagine an athlete making that choice today? The 1968 games were memorable for the black power gesture of two American sprinters on the winners' podium and the amazing feat of Bob Bea-mon, Bea-mon, who smashed the world long jump record by more than a foot, becoming becom-ing the first human to break both the 28-foot and 29-foot barriers. The 1972 games were the saddest, as Arab terrorists murdered Israeli athletes in their quarters in Munich. By violating the Olympic Games with those coldblooded cold-blooded murders, the perpetrators perpe-trators lost much sympathy for the Palestinian cause. The decades-long rivalry between the Free World and Communist Bloc reached its climax at the 1980 Winter Games. The victory of the American hockey team, consisting of young amateurs, ama-teurs, over the mighty Red Army team symbolized the triumph of liberty over tyranny. tyr-anny. The guttural chant "U-S-A" never sounded so sweet. (Now that the cold war is over, is that pounding, pound-ing, in-your-face chant ap-propriate,when ap-propriate,when an American Ameri-can athlete beats some postal post-al clerk from Paraguay or Timbuktu?) Besides the geopolitical t 9 am - 5 pm 374-5520 Provo www.artista.net GeiebFafcej Yqlip Independence, - t1 1T f M 3 i MemberslThe Re3 bevil Varsity High School. The Chilean team has been on a three-week tour of the western Untied States and made a stop in Utah County to play teams from Timpanogos, Orem, Payson, Mountain View and Springviile. Springviile defeated the Chilean team 59-48. Players participating for Springviile were, left to right, back: Dan Foster, Matt Sumsion, Kevin Critchfield and Raul Delgato. Front: Ren Williamsen. Not pictured is Sam Schreiner. The Chilean team is shown wearing Red Devil shooting shirts given to them as a gift from the Red Devil team. undercurrents that have conflicted with the Olympic ideal of global brotherhood, the Games' lofty aspirations have been vitiated by doping dop-ing scandals and corrupt judging. The International Olympic Committee itself has compromised its own ideals by opening events to professionals already earning millions for playing play-ing their sports. Nevertheless, Neverthe-less, the noble ideals of the Olympi cs striving to achieve one's best in a spirit of genuine brotherhood and The HC Storm Soccer Club held its first Grassroots Clinic for 4-8 yr olds. The kids had a lot of fun without realizing they were learning and working on their soccer skills. They worked with the new club trainer on footskills, speed training and ball handling. They thank citizens for their continued support of the club and the children in our community. The Utah Dingers Super League baseball team played 12 games in five days in the Triple Crown World Series Championship. The Dingers lost their first game in bracket play. They then came back and won 9 games to win the Triple Crown World Series Championship in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The boys were rewarded trophies and championship t-shirts. The team received a Louisville Slugger bat and TPX fielding glove. The tournament was sponsored by Louisville Slugger. Shown are the team with Championship Banner: front, left to right Matt Whiting (Salem), Dex McKell (Orem), Jake Mafi (Spanish Fork), Janzen Davis (Vernal), Tate Laing (Orem), Jayce Hill (Orem), Skylar Johnson (Orem). Back: Coach Dale Whiting (Salem), Will Heward (Ogden), Bennett Bradford (Spanish Fork), Parker Overly (Orem), Coach Dennis Hill (Orem), Nolan Gray (Orem), Nik Mafi (Spanish Fork), Head Coach Dan Laing (Orem) H?av J 1 V '-fi- I . fk, W- . lf',; 5 r f basketball team played in an exhibition gamTw charity endure. Many more Olympians honor those ideals than fall short of them. One of the great experiences experi-ences of my life was attending attend-ing the opening ceremony of the 2002 winter games in Salt Lake City with my daughter as guests of the Olympic Committee. Karin had composed the torch re-. re-. lay song, "Carry the Flame" (recorded by Aretha Franklin), Frank-lin), which captured the Olympic spirit, reminding each of us of our opportu -TV 1 1 i: I s c om r tf ct tow -.iw1" -'v''1-"' .... .-- Hf"' ' . ' Limited Tins Offerl- Quality Condos with Ail tha EXTRAS - Even a Garage. Minutes from East Bay, Shopping, Golf, Freeway, BYU & UVU. i Oil i 1 n 1 V nity to be all that we can be. I'll never forget how the crowd enthusiastically welcomed all the athletes at Opening Ceremony Russian, Rus-sian, French, Islamic, every single one. The Olympics provide a vivid demonstration demonstra-tion that individual human beings can harmonize beautifully beau-tifully when politics doesn't intrude. As we observe the 2008 'Olympic Games in China, let us all embrace the Olympic Olym-pic spirit. May the spirit of true brotherhood and sis . 4 ' t "1 f. t W u$ &4 ife r a rj Jo Pnynioiiis For B VOV1U Starting in the sonse restrictions taply-call for f 5 3 i It ' 1 M r- V i o. .n Chile July 30 at Springviile terhood prevail let us feel unselfish joy in each other's accomplishments. May the Olympic Games inspire us to build a future in which the whole human race coexists coex-ists as one family, working peacefully and cooperatively cooperative-ly to achieve humankind's maximum potential. Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson Hendrick-son is a faculty member, economist, and contributing contribut-ing scholar with the Center Cen-ter for Vision & Values at Grove City College. 1 ,s . id t sf a h i in ' ttrrts raoiniis $150's. details I ' I I h M I TpP' Haaga's Mattress unmrtwLiiMuw 1032 S. Slato, Orem C05-C0:0 400 South 2250 Vest Springviile (C0I-592-4430 S P I - - 1 -- - - - |