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By TRAVIS TINGLE
Sports Editor
One word could have described
the feelings of United States sprinter
Carl Lewis bef ore the start of the Los
Angeles Olympics — pressure.
But the pressure surrounding the
jOlympics today is no different than
lit was 16 years ago. No one knows
hhat more than Randy Matson —
’Texas A&M’s only Olympic gold
medalist.
Mattson, the executive director of
the Association of Former Students,
took gold medal honors in the shot
put during the 1968 Mexico City
Games.
“One of the toughest things I’ve
ever been through was going in as a
gold medal favorite in the Olym
pics,” Matson says.
Matson knows what’s going on in
side Lewis and Moses — he’s been
there before.
“I feel empathy for those guys
(Lewis and U.S. hurdler Edwin
Moses). 1 felt like after all the years
of training I’d been through to win
the gold, I was ready to turn somer
saults when I got done. I was just
glad it was over.”
Matson, a freshman on the T exas
A&M track and field team in 1964,
' won a silver medal in the shot put
kedwhautK during that year’s Tokyo Games. It
large naval
was that performance that made him
a strong candidate for the gold in
the ’68 Mexico City Games.
But Matson says being heavily fa
vored to win a gold medal doesn’t
neccessarily make an athlete over
confident.
“It’s just opposite of that,” he says.
“You try much harder. You’re aware
of being heavily favored to win so
you just try to keep from losing
rather than going all out to win. If
you’re expected to win the gold,
there’s alot of pressure on you to ex
cel.”
Excel is putting it lightly for most
American sports fans. Not only are
Olympians expected to win gold
medals, but they must break and set
world records in the process.
Carl Lewis found this to be the
case Monday night. He heard boos
from the L.A. Coliseum crowd after
he failed to even try to break Ameri
can Bob Beamon’s world record
long jump by passing on his last four
attempts.
But Matson knows how difficult it
is to shatter world records.
“It’s hard to break world records
in the Olympics,” he says. “Techni
que events are the hardest to set re
cords in. I used to compete against
the tape measure when I threw the
shot, but those records never came
any easier.
“I won the gold in ’68 with a throw
of 67 1/4 feet. That wasn’t my best
mark, but I threw early and every
body else got worse as it went along.”
The U.S. Olympic team felt an
even greater pressure to win gold
medals after the Soviet Union an
nounced it would boycott the
Games. Even Matson admits he’s
sorry that the Soviet and East Ger
man athletes weren’t able to compete
in Los Angeles. He says the competi
tion level just isn’t the same without
them.
“It’s like taking Texas and SMU
out of the Southwest Conference
football race,” he says. “It just
wouldn’t be the same.”
After Matson accomplished his
lifelong goal of winning an Olympic
gold medal, he still put more pres
sure on himself. In July 1972, Mat-
son placed fourth in the Olympic tri
als, but only the top three finishers
made the U.S. team.
Matson’s reason for trying to
make the Olympic team again after
reaching the peak of his career by
winning an gold is simple — a com
petitive drive.
“I felt like I had to go back one
more time, even after I’d won the
gold,” he says. “I thought the experi
ence of being on two previous Olym
pic teams would give me as good a
shot to win as anybody.”
'84 Olympic feats show proof
Women steal Games
United Press International
LOS ANGEL.ES — This is the
Olympics of the American woman.
After decades of also rans, sec
ond-rate facilities and subtle dis
crimination, American women at the
Los Angeles Olympics have used the
East Bloc boycott and their own
gutsy determination to steal the
show.
Runner Valerie Brisco-Hooks
bore a child and shed 40 pounds be
fore winning the gold in the 400 me
ters. Marathoner Joan Benoit, only
months after knee surgery, kept her
world record at the end of a 26 mile-
course she called a breeze. And a 16-
empty oil Ji ® year-old from West Virgina, Mary
st. Phalange
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Lou Retton, gave the United States
its first women’s gymnastics medal
a gold.
Twelve new Olympic events and
one sport — cycling — were opened
to women at the Los Angeles Games
and from them, came some of the
new American “heroines” that will
juntains, D' doubtless be cast as role models for a
younger generation.
“Now women really train, and
train very hard,” Prof. Christine
Wells told the Olympic Scientific
eir front lilt* 1 Congress in Eugene, Ore. “And
they’re training much more similarly
to the way men train. And we’re see
ing the differences.”
Credited with many of the gains
American women athletes have
made is Title 9, a federal law requir
ing all schools receiving government
aid to provide women with the same
educational opportunities as men.
Although a recent Supreme Court
decision narrowed its definition,
regulations that took effect in 1976
stipulate that elementary and high
schools receiving federal dollars
must ensure girls and boys have an
equal chance to excel in sports. The
same regulation was enacted at fed
erally-financed American colleges
and universities two years later.
“Title 9 has made a tremendous
difference in opening up athletics to
girls in high school,” said attorney
Margaret Kohn of the National
Women’s Law Center in Washing
ton, D.C. “Before Title 9, there were
no athletic scholarships for women.
Now there are over 10,000 athletic
scholarships for women in the U.S.
“And we see what happened at
the (Los Angeles) Olympics.”
Yet in the face of the good news
for American women athletes comes
less heartening statistics, mostly
from the Third World. Of the 140
countries participating in the 23rd
Olympics, 50 of them included no
women athletes, while another 48
had no more than five.
Games’ organizers had expected
about 30 percent of the participants
to be women, but the East Bloc boy
cott dropped that to only 21 percent
— the same as the 1976 Olympics in
Montreal.
Switzerland’s Gabrielle Andersen-
Schiess, 39, staggered across the
marathon finish line suffering from
heat prostration and was widely con
gratulated for toughing it out.
Tracy Caulkins, 21, who won two
individual gold medals during the
week-long swimming competition,
retired in Los Angeles with 48 indi
vidual national titles as compared to
previous record holder Johnny
Weissmuller’s 38.
“This has been a great Olympics
for women,” Caulkins said. “You saw
what Joan (Benoit) did and we have
Mary Lou Retton and (middle dis
tance runner) Mary Decker. I think
we can all be role models for young
athletes and help them compete.”
Randy Matson, Texas A&M’s only Olympic shot put during his days on the Aggie track
gold medalist, is shown here throwing the and field team from 1964-1968.
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