A Kind of Special Immortality

Atop Tokyo's National Stadium, the Scoreboard flashed one last message: SAYONARA WE MEET AGAIN IN MEXICO CITY, 1968. Darkness fell, the Olympic flame flickered and died. There was nostalgia, but no regret, no fear that reflection would do anything to dim the luster of the XVIII Olympiad. For in 15 wondrous days, 6,600 athletes from 94 nations had tumbled, leaped, twisted, soared and splashed to a kind of special immortality.

In some future Olympics, other athletes would swim faster, jump higher, throw farther; and some day it might not matter any longer that the U.S. had beaten Russia in their private battle for supremacy in the Games (see box). But the memories would stay -of Bob Schul sprinting across the finish line in the 5,000-meter run, the first American ever to win the race, soaked with rain, plastered with mud, a look of utter rapture on his upturned face. Of Russia's Elvira Ozolina, crushed by her defeat in the women's javelin, rushing wildly into a hairdresser's to have her head shaved in shame. Of South Korea's defiant Dong Kih Choh, disqualified in his flyweight boxing preliminary, sitting angrily in his corner for 50 minutes while officials pleaded with him to leave the ring. And of the Hungarian water poloist who lost his trunks while the whole of Japan watched on TV.

Bones & Bundles. If the first week belonged to the U.S., the second be longed to everyone. By the time it was over, 41 nations had divided up the costume jewelry. The U.S. did fine in sailing (two silver, three bronze) -but the 15 yachting medals were split eight different ways. Germany's balding Willi Holdorf, the oldest-looking 24-year-old in Tokyo, won the decathlon. New Zealand's incomparable Peter Snell, already the 800-meter champion, scored another awesome victory in the 1,500-meter run for what he termed "a nice double." Australia's Betty Cuthbert, who won three events at Melbourne in 1956, cranked her 26-year-old bones around the 400-meter track in 52 seconds to win her fourth Olympic gold medal, and a tidy bundle named Ann Packer became the second British woman ever to win an Olympic track gold medal when she took the 800 meters in world record time.

The Russian men, shut out for the whole first week, finally got a couple of gold medals in men's track and field. Romuald Klim whirled the hammer 228 ft. 10 1/2 in., and Russia's Valery Brumel beat the U.S.'s John Thomas for the ninth time in ten meetings in the high jump. Both Brumel and Thomas cleared 7 ft. 1 3/4 in.; the Russian won because he had fewer misses.

Some Surprises. Those victories did little to pacify Pravda. Where were all the "sure" gold medals that Track Coach Gavril Korobkov had promised? In track and field, both men's and women's, the U.S. picked up 14 to Russia's 5; in swimming, the bulge was 16 to 1. Then there was basketball. "The result will be a surprise," predicted Coach Alexander Gomelsky just before the U.S.-Russian final. If anybody was surprised, it wasn't the Americans, who rolled to an easy 73-59 victory-47th in a row for the U.S. in Olympic competition. Of course, when it came to toting up all the medals, including the semiprecious ones, the Russians beat the Americans 96 to 90; but around the Olympic Village they were calling Barracks 11 and 12 "Fort Knox": that was where the Yanks lived and the gold was.

With visions of Siberia dancing in his head, Korobkov did the best thing he could think of: he said he would retire. A Hungarian canoeist had a better idea: he defected to the U.S.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.