The Olympics: A Kind of Special Immortality

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Atop Tokyo's National Stadium, the Scoreboard flashed one last message: SAYONARA WE MEET AGAIN IN MEXICO CITY, 1968. Darkness fell, the Olympic flame flickered and died. There was nostalgia, but no regret, no fear that reflection would do anything to dim the luster of the XVIII Olympiad. For in 15 wondrous days, 6,600 athletes from 94 nations had tumbled, leaped, twisted, soared and splashed to a kind of special immortality.

In some future Olympics, other athletes would swim faster, jump higher, throw farther; and some day it might not matter any longer that the U.S. had beaten Russia in their private battle for supremacy in the Games (see box). But the memories would stay -of Bob Schul sprinting across the finish line in the 5,000-meter run, the first American ever to win the race, soaked with rain, plastered with mud, a look of utter rapture on his upturned face. Of Russia's Elvira Ozolina, crushed by her defeat in the women's javelin, rushing wildly into a hairdresser's to have her head shaved in shame. Of South Korea's defiant Dong Kih Choh, disqualified in his flyweight boxing preliminary, sitting angrily in his corner for 50 minutes while officials pleaded with him to leave the ring. And of the Hungarian water poloist who lost his trunks while the whole of Japan watched on TV.

Bones & Bundles. If the first week belonged to the U.S., the second be longed to everyone. By the time it was over, 41 nations had divided up the costume jewelry. The U.S. did fine in sailing (two silver, three bronze) -but the 15 yachting medals were split eight different ways. Germany's balding Willi Holdorf, the oldest-looking 24-year-old in Tokyo, won the decathlon. New Zealand's incomparable Peter Snell, already the 800-meter champion, scored another awesome victory in the 1,500-meter run for what he termed "a nice double." Australia's Betty Cuthbert, who won three events at Melbourne in 1956, cranked her 26-year-old bones around the 400-meter track in 52 seconds to win her fourth Olympic gold medal, and a tidy bundle named Ann Packer became the second British woman ever to win an Olympic track gold medal when she took the 800 meters in world record time.

The Russian men, shut out for the whole first week, finally got a couple of gold medals in men's track and field. Romuald Klim whirled the hammer 228 ft. 10½ in., and Russia's Valery Brumel beat the U.S.'s John Thomas for the ninth time in ten meetings in the high jump. Both Brumel and Thomas cleared 7 ft. 1¾ in.; the Russian won because he had fewer misses.