Mary Decker and Zola Budd
I guess Zola was way ahead of her time, vis a vis the barefoot run and the Vibram shoe trend. I can't believe she didn't sprain her toes more often, or worse. The human body is great.
This photo is amazing because for a second it looks like Zola's left shin and foot actually belong to Mary.
And here is the initial bump. I believe Zola tried to claim the lead and may have cut over without being a full stride ahead (accepted practice). Initially Mary blamed Zola and has maintained it robbed her of the gold -- we can never know THAT for sure -- but over the years Mary has also said it wasn't intentional and also that she herself isn't very experience with running in a pack (which is something of a flex because it's like saying, "I'm always in the lead, so when I'm not, I don't know what to do").
And the fall.
And this moment where she looks up and sees the field passing her by... what a thing.
Mary hurt her hip when she fell. This is an incredible photo, partly because the course marshal on the left doesn't even seem like he knows anything happened.
The ACTUAL lead caption on this photo was, I shit you not, "Men Helping Runner Up." ARE YOU SERIOUS. THAT IS SOME BULLSHIT. (Mary was eventually helped off by her future hubby Richard Slaney, as photographers flanked them and got right up in there on her crying face. Can you imagine.)
Joan Benoit
Joan was the first women's marathon champ at the Olympics, and she looks the same after running for two hours in the L.A. summer heat as I do after walking the trash cans out to the curb.
Gabriela Andersen-Schiess
Take it away, Informative Caption: "Switzerland's Gabriela Andersen-Schiess struggles to complete the marathon after entering the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. She staggered into the stadium with her torso twisted her left arm limp and her right leg stiff with cramp She waved away medical personnel knowing that if they touched her she would be disqualified. She finished in 37th place."
Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram
These two, of course, were all OVER the UK coverage, being GBR athletes. The future Lord Coe won his second consecutive Olympic gold here; I don't think Cram ever made it to the top of the podium at the Olympics but they had a pretty good rivalry there for a bit.
Carlos Lopes of Portugal
Carlos, on the left, won Portugal's first medal when he took the marathon. I also pulled this because these are some boring uniforms.
Carl Lewis (100 m)
YAY CARL. Look at that LEAD.
YAY MORE CARL. He also won the long jump FOUR TIMES at the Olympics and is now a track coach in Houston.
Carl Lewis, center; Thomas Jefferson, left; Kirk Baptiste
This is a wonderful photo; they swept the podium in the 200 meter, with Jefferson taking the bronze and Baptiste the silver.
Florence Griffith (later, Flo-Jo)
Her big year was 1988, but I had to document the nails. I don't know if I had ever noticed before that the nails on her left hand are longer and curlier than the ones on her right. I wonder WHY.
Daley Thompson
Daley got a LOT of coverage in the UK, also, as one of their top medal contenders -- and a decathlete, to boot. He won in 1980 and 1984, and was later awarded a world record score for the 1984 effort after some weird retabulation? Anyway: I can't imagine being able to do this EVER, period...
Sport
... much less ALSO this...
... with some of this....
... and seven other events, and then THIS, which isn't even PART of it; he just liked to do a celebratory back-flip sometimes. AS ONE DOES.
Aw.
Evelyn Ashford
Evelyn won the sprint with an Olympic record. She got hurt and had to drop out of the 200m but won this and the 100 m relay - and yes, the East Germans boycotted, and were world champs this year, but whatever. She won TWO freaking medals. No one knows what might have happened; maybe she'd have won them anyway. CELEBRATE.
Evelyn Ashford, Alice Brown, Merlene Ottey-Page
Merlene looks snazzy, and Alice just looks like she's trying not to get stabbed in the face by Evelyn's plant.
Nawal El-Moutawakel
Nawal won the 400-meter hurdles, and "was the inaugural winner of the event and was the first Muslim woman and the first woman from an Islamic nation to win a medal at the Olympics." The tears coming down her face! That right there is why I miss the Olympics.