Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

Page 61

The Champion of Champions
The event narrated here took place in Tokyo, the capital city of Japan, which had hosted the Olympics in 1964. About one hundred thousand spectators were keenly watching the discus-throw event on the 15th day of October that year. Huge television cameras were recording even the minutest details of the body movements of each and every participant. But none of the cameras was capable of recording the heartbeats that were taking place in the heart of the great discus throw competitor Al Oerter who came from New York with the United States contingent and who was working in the computer section of the Gruman Aircraft Company as an inspector. Neither the cameras that were focused on him, nor the experts or the spectators present had even an inkling of the terrible condition in which their favourite participant was competing. The entire past of the man was suggesting that Al Oerter was trying probably for the impossible. In such a fast changing world, it was considered almost impossible for anyone to obtain three consecutive Olympic gold medals in any single event. The only exception was John Flagnan of the U.S. who had won the gold in the hammer throwing event in three consecutive Olympics. But those times were quite different. Flangnan had recorded those victories in the Olympic Games held in 1900, 1904 and 1908. Those days are known in sports as the 'dark age'. The progress that was being