Oh yeah.... this is us in 1984.
And yes we are wearing matching "Olympic Shirts". We believed ourselves to be the "official" family of the 1984 Olympics. We made the shirts (note the fabric has all the colors of the Olympic rings)and had purchased tickets well before the games, like in January of that year in a lottery system. We were awarded 8 tickets to the Track and Field events and the first baseball (exhibition) game, venue=Dodger Stadium! Parker and Dad Moffat were in Sport Spectator Heaven, being lifelong fans of Track and Field and the event being held @USC / Coliseum which is where Dad attended College and played baseball I might add.
The daily events would be thus: Watch the morning recap while eating breakfast. Then, head out to the events and enjoy the day, then race(well, not actually race, because of the traffic etc.) home to Marti's or Merry Ann's to watch the recap on television for several hours. This Olympic obsession has become our pattern to date. Life pretty much slows down to a crawl till the closing ceremonies. We might just be the official Olympic family after all. So what.. you ask? Well..... as we watch in the comfort our home, you know, High Def T.V. , swigs, T.V. tray dinners, we see all of the controversial calls, the faulty judgments, and the thrill of the spectacle that is Olympic Sport, complete with sympathetic, compassionate tears and patriotic pride. Basically for 24 years we have loved it! We would not want to miss a single day. We reminisce back to the 84 Olympics with joy and just so you know this happened like, right in front of us. (we sat in row 16 just @ the curve of the track).
Mary Decker (on the ground)was heavily favored to win a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics. In the 3000 meters final, Zola Budd(inside lane and barefoot), half a stride ahead of Decker, moved to the inside lane, inadvertently crowding Decker, who collided with Budd and fell spectacularly to the curb. Decker's hip was injured and she was unable to resume the race. She was carried from the track by her future husband. At a press conference she said that Budd was to blame for the collision. (In track races it is generally the trailing athlete's responsibility to avoid contact with the runner ahead; on the other hand, it is an accepted convention among most distance runners that the leader should be a full stride ahead before cutting in.) Track officials initially disqualified Budd for obstruction, but she was reinstated just one hour later once officials had viewed films of the race.
Other Names and fun facts from the '84 Olympics: Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis, Joan Benoit, Synchronized Swimming and Rhythmic Gymnastics debuted. All in all a great year.
