USA Olympic Track & Field Trials

[oregonpackfan]

Have any of you been watching the USA Olympic Track & Field Trials currently being held at Hayward Field in Eugene, OR? It started three days ago and will run through July 6th.

Besides the athletic coverage, the programing has also covered historical aspects of Hayward Field, Oregon Track legends Steve Prefontaine, the co-founders of Nike--former track coach Bill Bowerman and runner Phil Knight, etc..

For one event, they had all the American 1980 Olympians take a "Victory Lap" around the track. If you recall, these Olympians earned a berth to the Olympics only to be denied the right to participate. President Jimmy Carter ordered an American boycott of the Olympics to be held in Moscow in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.

Almost every '80 Olympian interviewed, stated the boycott hurt only the Olympians and had no effect on the Soviet Union. This was an interesting observation particularly with respect to today's argument by some that the United States should boycott the 2008 Olympics to protest China's treatment of Tibet.

If you have a chance to watch it, the coverage is very interesting.

[digitaldean]

Yeah, I remember all the people shafted by Jimmy Carter's foolish attempt at making a statement.

Mary Decker, Edwin Moses, Kurt Thomas - just to mention a few - screwed to make a Quixotic point to the USSR. All it did was guarantee the Russians would boycott LA in 1984.

[Tarlam!]

Indeed. Those two Olypics were terrible. Australia left it up to the athletes' consciense to decide in 1980. God-awful.

My girl and I had the "in light of Tibet, should the world boykott Peking" discussion last month. My argument follows what OPF quotes. The only people that would suffer are the athletes that worked their whole lives to qualify. My girl isn't convinced, but shit, she is too beautiful to dump for being stubborn!