I am deeply skeptical that the Olympic Games have added any real value to sports. 

   I hate the Olympics.  They are over-dramatized, jingoistic and literally amateurish - rarely do they play forum to a real, genuine,

pure, unadulterated sporting event.  Occasionally, something happens that is truly special without the benefit of the sentimental media back-stories, but usually it happens in a pseudo-sport like ice dancing or synchronized swimming.

   I mean, the luge - what the hell is that?  That's just jumping on something that's going to cross the finish line with or without you.  I call that hitchhiking.  And how can someone care about people who can throw shiny metal balls further than other people?

   Still, there have been a few legitimate moments of accomplishment in the Olympics:

   At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, one German official complained that the Americans were letting "non-humans, like [Jesse] Owens and other Negro athletes," compete. So on August 3, with a time of 10.3 seconds, Owens winning the gold medal in the 100-meter dash was just a little bit special; the next day, he won the long jump from blond, blue-eyed German Olympic record-holder Luz Long. Then on August 5, Owens broke the world and Olympic record in the 200-meter dash ( 20.7 seconds, breaking the record of 21.2 set by Eddie Tolan and Ralph Metcalf in 1932), and beating out teammate Mack Robinson, the older brother of Jackie Robinson.

   That was supposed to be the end of Owens' Olympic participation, but on August 9, he and Ralph Metcalf replaced Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, the only Jews on the U.S. track team, on the 4x100-meter relay. (The rumor was that the Nazi hierarchy had asked U.S. officials not to humiliate Germany further by using two Jews to add to the gold medals the African-Americans already had won.) The American 400-meter relay team won by 15 yards, in a record breaking time of 39.8 seconds - a mark that would stand for 20 years.

   In 1984, Carl Lewis would duplicate Owens' achievement of winning 4 gold medals in the same 4 events - 100-meter, 200-meter, long jump and 4X100 team relay - but he did it with the home field advantage of being in Los Angeles, and the fact that the athletes from the Soviet Union were boycotting the event reduced competition greatly. 

   At the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, the athlete to beat in women's gymnastics was Olga Korbut, of the Soviet Union. The petite Korbut, the darling of the 1972 Munich games, was expected to win medals in several individual competitions, but she - and the rest of the field - was supplanted by the 14-year-old Romanian Nadia Comaneci.

   Comaneci's performance in her first compulsory exercise - the uneven bars - was unparalleled: the awed crows was hushed as she hit her dismount, and then roared in surprise as a "1.00" flashed on the scoreboard. Comaneci had done what no other Olympic gymnast had ever done: scored a perfect "10" - the board had been built to accommodate a high core of 9.9 (soon after, competitions around the world had to replace or remodel their scoring systems to include a perfect 10).

   Later, performing in the optional exercises, Comaneci proved that her score was no fluke - she got 10s on the uneven bars and the balance beam. Later, she got four more perfect 10s (again on the uneven bars and the balance beam) - she finished with seven perfect 10s, three gold medals, a silver and a bronze.

   At the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal, the athlete to beat in women's gymnastics was Olga Korbut, of the Soviet Union. The petite Korbut, the darling of the 1972 Munich games, was expected to win medals in several individual competitions, but she - and the rest of the field - was supplanted by the 14-year-old Romanian Nadia Comaneci.

   Comaneci's performance in her first compulsory exercise - the uneven bars - was unparalleled: the awed crows was hushed as she hit her dismount, and then roared in surprise as a "1.00" flashed on the scoreboard. Comaneci had done what no other Olympic gymnast had ever done: scored a perfect "10" - the board had been built to accommodate a high core of 9.9 (soon after, competitions around the world had to replace or remodel their scoring systems to include a perfect 10).

   Later, performing in the optional exercises, Comaneci proved that her score was no fluke - she got 10s on the uneven bars and the balance beam. Later, she got four more perfect 10s (again on the uneven bars and the balance beam) - she finished with seven perfect 10s, three gold medals, a silver and a bronze.

   Mark Spitz seemed born for success - he had attitude and discipline, and at 16, he won the 100-meter butterfly at the National AAU Championships, the first of his 24 AAU titles. The next year, 1967, he won five gold medals at the Pan-American Games in Winnipeg.

   He was expected to win several individual gold medals at the 1968 Olympics, having already set 10 world records. The controversy came when Spitz himself, sounding brash and cocky, predicted he would win six golds.

   But he fell short, winning just two golds (in the team relays), picking up a silver in the 100m butterfly, and bronze in the 100-m freestyle. What would have been a triumph to most was a disappointment to Spitz - many thought he would hang up his swimsuit after such a bitter disappointment.

   But Spitz re-dedicated himself to swimming, and in 1972 he triumphed with 7 gold medals in 7 events, and set world records in each one. His first race in Munich was the 200-meter butterfly; when Spitz touched the wall to win in 2:00.7, he leaped out of the water, his arms held high. The next event - the 200-meter freestyle - was even more exciting, and Spitz won in 1:52.78, defeating his teammate, Steve Genter, who had been released from the hospital only the day before following surgery for a collapsed lung.

   He won his next event, the 100-meter butterfly (his favorite), by a full body length in 54.27 seconds. Despite fears that teammate Jerry Heidenreich could spoil his gold-medal sweep, Spitz won the gold, finishing a half-stroke ahead of Heidenreich in 51:22 seconds.

   Spitz's three team golds came in the 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay (3:26:42), the 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay (7:35.78) and the 4 x 100-meter medley relay (3:48.16).

   No American had ever won the 10,000-meter gold medal, and since 1912 no American had even won a medal. Americans, after all, excelled at short distances, and rarely challenged at anything longer than 400 meters.

   Before the race, no one was giving Mills much of a shot. His best time of 29:10 was almost a full minute slower than Australian Ron Clarke. Mills had never won a major race in his life, and before the event, no reporters sought him out, such an invisible figure was he.

   As the race started, Clarke took the early lead; the pack included previous Olympians Petr Bolotnikov of Russia and Murray Hallberg of New Zealand, and future Olympic medalists Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia and Mamo Wolde of Ethiopia. It also included Billy Mills, the unheralded American. As Clarke pushed the pace, runner after runner fell back until only Mills and Gammoudi were left.

   A collision between Mills and Clarke, as the latter sidestepped a fallen runner, allowed Gammoudi to take a brief lead on the racers' final lap. But Clarke and Mills regained stride and sprinted for the finish - Mills pushed ahead, and broke the tape just four-tenths of a second ahead of Gammoudi - an astonishingly close finish for a 10,000-meter race. Mills' record time was 28:24.4, smashing his own personal best by 45.6 seconds.

   16-year-old Mary Lou Retton needed an outstanding performance in her final event to win the individual all-around Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles. A 9.95 would give her a tie for first place; a 10 would give her the gold by herself. The nerveless Retton responded with a perfect vault - a full back somersault in layout position with a full twist, then followed up with another perfect vault that was statistically meaningless but a powerful exclamation point. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal of any kind in gymnastics.

   Babe Didrikson began as a muscular phenom who mastered numerous sports and ended as a brilliant golfer. The gregarious tomboy burned with a competitive fire worthy of Ty Cobb; her life was athletics, and she was accomplished in just about every sport - basketball, track, golf, baseball, tennis, swimming, diving, boxing, volleyball, handball, bowling, billiards, skating and cycling. When asked if there was anything she didn't play, she said, "Yeah, dolls."

   In 1932, Babe single-handedly won the AAU championships, which served as Olympic qualifying, in Evanston, Ill. The sole representative of Employers Casualty, she scored 30 points, eight more than the runner-up team, which had 22 athletes. In a span of three hours, the 21-year-old competed in 8 of 10 events, winning five outright and tying for first in the high jump. She set world records in the javelin (139 feet, three inches), 80-meter hurdles (11.9 seconds), high jump (5 feet, 3 3/16 inches, tying for first with Jean Shiley) and baseball throw (272 feet, 2 inches).

   While she qualified for five Olympic events in Los Angeles, women were allowed to compete in only three. She won the first Olympic women's competition in the javelin (143 feet, 4 inches) and 80-meter hurdles, setting a world record with her time of 11.7 seconds.

   In the high jump, she and Jean Smiley both broke the world record at 5-foot-5¼, but Smiley received the gold and Babe the silver when Babe was disqualified on a dubious ruling after her final jump. The official said Babe's head cleared the bar before the rest of her body, a rule that no longer exists.

   Having already won the pentathlon eight days ago at the Olympics in Stockholm, Jim Thorpe added to his collection of gold by completing his victory in the decathlon. With 8,412 points, he broke the world record by an incredible 998 points.

   After 7 events the previous two days, Thorpe held a sizeable lead. Then on the final day, he finished tied for third in the pole vault with a leap of 10 ft., 7.95 in.; took third in the javelin with a throw of 149 ft., 11.2 in.; and won the 1500 meters in 4:40.1, a personal best by more than four seconds. His final margin was 688 points over the runner-up, Hugo Wieslander of Sweden.

   When Thorpe was introduced at the awards ceremony there was a great burst of cheers, led by King Gustav V. Thorpe received a jewel-encrusted chalice in the form of a Viking ship (a gift from Czar Nicholas of Russia) for winning the decathlon and a life-size bronze bust of the Swedish king for capturing the pentathlon. In congratulating Thorpe, Gustav tells him, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world."

   Thorpe reputedly replied, "Thanks, King."