You know, before these games began there were lots of worries about traffic and about smog and about security and about drug use among athletes.
One thing that may not have been anticipated would have been sabotage of the equipment of some competitors.
Seems to have happened today. Here's Kathleen Sullivan.
There's word tonight that one of the boats used in the Olympic rowing competition may have been sabotaged.
International rowing authorities say an Orlok pin on a French boat was tampered with intentionally
and the French will be allowed to race in Sunday's final.
The pin broke during a preliminary race in the eight-man rowing event.
The oar jumped out and one of the oarsmen could only watch as the French boat finished last in the 2000 meter race.
Authorities say someone apparently filed down the Orlok pin.
It broke under the pressure created by the strokes of the 12-foot oar.
By allowing the French to compete in Sunday's final, authorities are actually bending international rules.
Those rules allow only six teams in a final race and the French will be number six.
The other Olympic rowing teams roundly applauded the decision to give the French a second chance.
Really remarkable, quite amazing that something like that would happen in a game which have been quite conspicuous for the Olympics.
So we go on, volleyball coming up as we said, more boxing perhaps and we'll be right back.
One of the things that's interesting about that is that there are 11 Americans on the Italian team.
That's been a growing tendency in Olympic sports.
Howard Cosell has filed a report on that.
...structions by one of the coaches of the Italian Olympic baseball team.
The first player is from the well-known Italian resort of Miami, Florida.
And nine of the 20 players hail from such Italian cities as Memphis, Pittsburgh, Milford, Massachusetts and Lomita, California.
These Italian Americans express pride in their ethnicity like pitching ace David Farina of Pittsburgh.
Personally, I've been playing ball for the last 15, 16 years and you know, due to my heritage, I qualified playing it.
I'm just glad to be playing in the Olympics.
You know, I probably would have never gotten this chance before unless I came over here to play ball in Italy.
So I'm very grateful and I'm looking forward to it.
These athletes represent an unofficial Olympic sport which is becoming as traditional as pin swapping.
It's country hopping.
Athletes changing are using dual citizenship to compete in the games.
This year's most controversial case, that of Zola Budd the teen-aged wonder.
She left South Africa, which is bought from the games to run for Great Britain.
Can now have her showdown with American Mary Decker.
IOC rules require permission from the old country, the new country and the particular sports international governing body.
In practice, the regulations seem more lax and many Americans take advantage of them.
For instance, back in 76, Marquette University's Butch Lee nearly led Puerto Rico to an upset victory over the U.S. basketball team.
Current examples include male model Tom Hintenhouse who lives in Los Angeles but will pole vault for Brazil.
Tom was born in Brazil, left at the age of two.
And USC's Lewis Morales, born in Washington, D.C., will run for Puerto Rico.
Such cases can cause resentment.
There's been a legal dispute in Rome over the country hoppers.
Paul Gagliano of Memphis is Italy's center fielder.
He understands how national sensitivities are ruffled.
I feel Italian.
It's kind of, it's a difficult situation.
You know, I know other countries in the world do it.
I'm happy to be here.
I would say that we have helped Italian baseball.
How do teammates feel about U.S. country hoppers?
Beppe Corelli is Italy's leading slugger and an Italian Italian.
These guys, they've been born in the States but they got Italian blood inside.
So it's like if I am in Italian.
I mean, if I got all the ballplayers are Italian, it doesn't matter where they're born.
Okay?
The games of the 23rd Olympiad.
Brought to you by McDonald's, sponsors of amateur sports from the...
Volleyball continues to provide a lot of excitement in these Olympic games.
Now, yet to come tonight is the game between the undefeated United States team and South Korea,
which is also a very powerful squad.
You'll be seeing that live on our late night coverage coming up just about a half an hour from now.
But what a day and what an evening it has been here at the games of the 23rd Olympiad.
We've seen a lot of things and we have, I guess, just about every day.
But some of them were special.
Victor Davis took a silver in one of the events you're going to be seeing.
This, however, was cycling.
Mark Gorski and he won.
Nelson Bales of the United States, both of them moving ahead.
This was water polo.
Spain against Greece.
And by the way, tomorrow night the United States will be playing water polo against Spain,
which contains the world's greatest players.
Spain won that one easily.
Rowing at far off Lake Cacidas.
Repetition heats, which means another chance to move ahead in the competition.
United States did qualify.
The boxing, well, we saw this earlier.
Meldrick Taylor of the United States defeating the young Romanian.
Other Americans moving ahead, a clean slate for the young American boxer so far.
The most powerful team we've had since 1976 in the Sugar Ray Leonard days.
We saw knockouts today.
We saw a couple of them.
Women's basketball, the United States, France, Korea.
Cheryl Miller continuing along.
16 more points today.
Men's and women's basketball, a big story here for the United States.
Mary T. Maher, Madame Butterfly they call her, made her first appearance,
the butterfly queen of the world.
That's that stroke that she does.
And she won a gold medal coming from behind to do it.
Victor Davis of Canada winning a gold medal for the Canadians.
A proud week for them in swimming.
They had never won a gold until this week.
That was a world record, by the way.
The freestyle relay.
400 meter freestyle, the relay came later.
This was Li Ning of China.
One of his performances through this evening in the men's individual all-around final.
And Peter Vidmar of the United States.
Ning and Vidmar appeared to be the competitors, the top competitors going into the final.
But there were six within just a couple of tenths of points.
There was Peter's mother and father watching as he got a 10 in the first event.
But the winner in the end, it was this man, Koji Gushiken of Japan.
A veteran who had hoped to peak at Moscow four years ago.
But his country boycotted along with the United States.
Many, many people thought his chance had passed, but it hadn't.
And there were tears of joy for Koji Gushiken of Japan,
winner of the individual all-around medal.
The silver, however, went to Peter Vidmar of the United States,
the first silver medal won by the United States in any gymnastics competition, individual style,
since 52 years ago here in Los Angeles in 1932.
A half an hour from now, our live coverage of the games of the 23rd Olympiad will continue.
We'll start again at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning Eastern Daylight Time.
I'll be back at 7.
But right now, however, I'm Jim McKay saying so long from Los Angeles.
We want to take this opportunity to remind you that while we welcome this opportunity
to bring you our coverage of the Olympic Games and late night,
ABC News Nightline, which has been on hiatus and will be for these two weeks,
will return with its regularly scheduled broadcast on Monday, August 13,
at 11.30 Eastern, 10.30 Central, and 11.30 Pacific Time.
Now let's return to the volleyball.
Let's take a look at the highlights of this 23rd day of these games.
China's Li Ning turned in a marvelous performance in the men's floor exercise,
a routine he won't easily forget.
For America's Peter Vidmar, the memory of Tuesday night's triumph in the men's gymnastics
was still fresh when he turned in this perfect performance on the rings.
In this case, the result wasn't golden, but memory will be sterling indeed.
But perhaps the story of the night was this man, Japan's Koji Gushiken,
who was as good as gold throughout his floor exercise and then accepted his victory with grace.
Koji Gushiken, the gold medalist in the men's gymnastics individual exercises, the gold medalist.
Earlier in the day, Madame Butterfly moved into the pool, and there she won her first gold medal.
Mary T. Maher celebrated her triumph with the 100 meter butterfly
with second place finisher and teammate Jenna Johnson.
And Canada's Victor Davis took a silver in the 100 meter breaststroke on Sunday,
but today he made it gold in the 200 meter breaststroke, and along the way set a world record.
In boxing, America's Robert Chen had advanced in the bantamweight light division
with a 5-0 unanimous decision over Sammy Mangy of Kenya.
And in one of the most inspirational and exciting moments of these games,
America's Jeffery Blatnick realized his Olympic dream by winning the gold
in the unlimited class of Greco-Roman wrestling.
Only two years ago, Blatnick suffered from Hodgkin's disease.
His discovery and his triumph made for an overwhelming moment.
An incredible day, a lot of highlights.
Every day we feel like we've seen the height in emotional release,
and then you see something like Jeff Blatnick, which to me was almost indescribable.
Well, if you've been with us throughout the week, you'll recall that earlier in the week
we took you out to the Forum for a look at the Yugoslavian basketball team
in the men's competition, regarded by some as a medal contender.
Keith Jackson and Digger Phelps gave us their evaluation on that evening of the Yugoslavs.
And then the following evening we went back out for a look at the Spaniards,
and we heard from Keith and Digger on what they thought of the Spaniards.
A third team, which was regarded by many as a potential medal contender, is the Italian team.
And the Italians right now are playing Australia at the Forum.
Keith and Digger are standing by, so let's see what they think of Italy.
1932 was the last time the Olympics were held in Los Angeles.
The country was still in the grip of the Great Depression, and yet had a madcap spirit of invention.
And Ray Gandolf remembers the year and looks at its oddities.
People tried a lot of things to forget their troubles in 1932.
They voted for new leadership.
They followed Bing Crosby's advice to wrap your troubles in dreams.
What price happiness, what price happiness, who can truthfully say, what for every share with tears we pay?
Love is happiness, I've had happiness, but it ended one day.
Now I look at life a different way.
Amelia Earhart made her historic crossing of the Atlantic in 1932.
Her tragic disappearance was five years away.
It was a time for zany pioneers as well as serious ones.
Herbert Hoover, the scapegoat, was out.
Franklin Roosevelt, the country's hope, was in.
Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned in India.
Americans wrapped their troubles in some very strange and dangerous dreams.
Prohibition's days were numbered, and if you couldn't forget your trouble, you could put a head on it.
In Asia, the Sino-Japanese War was going on.
In Washington, the bonus marchers, veterans of World War I, took their plea for reparations to the Capitol.
The streets and park benches of American cities were filled with people who had no dreams to wrap their troubles in.
Some dreams seemed hardly better than no dreams at all.
Some, like the Boston Marathon, survived and would continue.
Kate Smith promised us that the moon would come over the mountain.
And entertainers from Maurice Chevalier to the Harvard Kids and the Hasty Pudding Show
tried to make us forget that 1932 was not a very good year.
Wouldn't have been such a bad time to be here, though.
It must have been entertaining, certainly, to be here at the time of the Olympic Games
and to see how this community has changed in those 52 years would, I'm sure, be fascinating.
Right now, Al Troutwig has a report for us on a variety of sports that don't usually get headlines here,
some of the more esoteric ones.
He's been looking at handball, modern pentathlon, field hockey, and others.
Let's see how things are going in these sports with Troutwig.
Many Olympic fans are scratching their heads at this sport,
but not those who have sold out team handball at Cal State Fullerton.
Last night, for the very first time in Olympic competition, America was able to win a game.
It is the heartwarming story of a Czechoslovakian defector, Clement Sapliar,
and his plan to sequester these women in Lake Placid to prepare for the Games and give up a normal life.
It was the People's Republic of China who watched their lead slip away,
as the Americans provided a memory not soon forgotten by those who were there.
But for the ladies of Lake Placid, a long road ahead.
They still have to face the favorite Yugoslavians and Koreans.
Then there is the modern pentathlon, and drama created not by cheers, but mental strength.
At Coto de Casa, there are five events to determine a champion.
Equestrian, fencing, swimming, and on the final day, shooting, followed by running.
The standings were so very close going into the 4,000 meter event, and still close down the stretch of it.
It was Fonty Rasmussen of Sweden and Daniel Massala of Italy.
The first to cross the finish line would win the gold.
The two fatigued runners were taking their final strides in the final turn.
The Italians seemed to be fading, but then the steps of the Swede gave way.
The agony of Rasmussen became the glory of Massala.
Mike Storum in finishing fifth had the perfect time to give the United States a silver medal, their first medal in 20 years.
The French were able to grab the bronze.
50 miles east of LA are the shooters, using rigorous training and heavy clothing to help remove the feeling of their heartbeat.
The Americans have been on target with Ed Etzel and Pat Spurgeon winning gold.
Zhu Heifang began China's Olympic return with gold on day one.
Far to the north at Lake Kassidas, the leader of the pack in rowing is Perdi Karpenen of Finland.
No one pulls an oar through water more smoothly.
New Zealand leads the way in teamwork, while the Americans have had great success, reaching the finals in 13 of 14 events, and will challenge them in the men's eight.
One missed pull could cost a medal in this event.
At East Los Angeles College in field hockey, India, the eight-time gold winner, is dominating once again, while the United States just can't seem to figure this one out.
They won a bronze in 1932, but only because three teams entered, winless in 84 and in their entire Olympic history.
Not so on the women's side. The United States was making its Olympic debut versus Canada in a 16 competition.
The women gave their country its first victory in Olympic field hockey.
Awaiting them and their inspired 32-year-old leader Beth Anders in the next game is the favorite team from the Netherlands.
The headlines have belonged to gymnastics, basketball, swimming, and boxing, but the excitement in these events is plentiful.
The attention is nice. But as they say in team handball, we're not in this for the publicity.
So tomorrow Jim and I will be going back to the swimming pool for the last two days of competition.
There's five events, the women's 200-meter individual medley, the men's 200-meter butterfly, the men's 100-meter backstroke, the women's 400-meter medley relay,
and the women's 800-meter freestyle. And Jim, we're going to see some good competition again tomorrow.
Yes, and of course the track and field competition begins tomorrow. Carl Lewis and the 100-meter dash heats.
The beginning also of the women's 800-meter competition. The games are heating up. We'll talk to you tomorrow.