Word: decathlon
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...also an editorial decathlon. Thanks to Oliver's airtight deadlines, everything in the magazine had to be written, edited, double- checked for accuracy and put to bed by 6 a.m. Wednesday, no matter how late the returns were. So assistant managing editor Jim Kelly and senior editor Tom Sancton prepared two complete story lists, one in anticipation of a Clinton victory and one in response to the last-minute surge by George Bush. While a few stories appeared on both lists, most hinged on results that wouldn't be available until the final hours. There would be either a story...
Olympic Games come and go, but the decathlon world record stood for eight years, until American athlete Dan O'Brien smashed it to bits last week in Talence, France. The old record, 8,847 points scored by Daley Thompson of Great Britain, had long been considered a Mount Everest of track and field. For Dan, who unexpectedly sat out the Barcelona Games after failing to qualify in the pole vault, the 44-point margin of victory had the sweet taste of comeback: "This may not have been the Olympics, but I'm really happy." Next March, indomitable Dan goes...
Although O'Brien will not be down on the track, he intends to send a pointed message to his rivals, Johnson included. Just before the Olympic decathlon, O'Brien will compete in a meet in Stockholm. The idea O'Brien has involves clearing his opening height in the pole vault. That done, he plans to put up a score that no competitor could top at the Olympics. If Dan sets a new world record, it will still be a small consolation. Dan can settle nothing in Barcelona. Dave can grab the gold...
...Decathlon...
...creed of amateurism ill fit a world in which competition was being democratized, the popularity of sport was burgeoning, and standards of competition were rising. Nonetheless, the rules were followed strictly, even vindictively, and never more so than in the case of Jim Thorpe, U.S. winner of both the decathlon and the now discontinued pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics. The following year, it was discovered that Thorpe had received $25 a week to play baseball during the summers of 1909 and '10 -- a common practice for college athletes, many of whom used aliases. Thorpe was stripped of his awards. Seventy...