Even if events like the shot put or guys rowing in a lake don’t interest you a whole lot, it is still nice to know that the Summer Olympics are fast approaching, which means that there is something to have on in the background if you’re home during the day besides The Price is Right or Karate Kid II. It is also fun to be able to root for your entire country at once, as neighborhood, city, state, and team rivalries can go away for a few weeks. All you need is Hacksaw Jim Duggan to start up a good ole USA! chant. Over the last couple of decades we have seen some Americans do extremely well in the Olympics only to have one of those dreaded falls from grace. Basically, it’s the anti-Mary Lou Retton, since she stayed consistently famous after her gold medal in gymnastics in 1984 without ever doing anything else sports-wise. This week’s Top 7 looks at American falls from grace in the Summer Olympics.
7. Carl Lewis
Many people who can remember his Olympic days think of him as one of the most amazing athletes that they have seen. Unfortunately for Carl, anyone who can’t remember that, as well as many who do, only recall his legendarily bad national anthem.
6. Christian Laettner
Bird, Barkley, Jordan, Magic, Drexler, Ewing, Malone, Mullin, Pippen, Robinson, Stockton…Laettner. One does not go with the others. Living up to hype of being on the original Dream Team is tough, especially after one of the best college careers of all-time, but there were even some back then who wanted Shaq to be on the team instead. That would have looked much better now.
5. Tim Montgomery
Though he never qualified as an individual, he was on the 4 x 100 relay team at the 1996 games in Atlanta. BALCO, steroids, money laundering, and heroin dealing followed. If he were higher profile as an American Olympian, he’d be higher, like his ex.
4. Kurt Angle
He won the gold in heavyweight freestyle wrestling in Atlanta in ’96. Some would consider simply joining the WWF a “fall from grace,” but not the Top 7. Not at all. However, being essentially kicked out of the WWF for violating substance abuse policy absolutely is. It’s like being kicked out of the infield at the Kentucky Derby for being too drunk.
3. Reebok
In many weeks prior to the 1992 Olympics in Barelona, Reebok ran commercials about who the world’s greatest athlete was, Dan or Dave. Dave was Dave Johnson, Dan was Dan O’Brien, real American decathaletes who Reebok was banking on being at the Olympics. That changed when O’Brien failed to even make the Olympic team at the trials, which put a bit of a damper on their ad campaign.
2. USA Basketball
The original Dream Team in 1992 was the most epic team of our generation. Nothing since has come close to topping their rock star appeal. The McDonald’s cups that featured each player caused pre-teens to drink around 600,000 calories of soda that summer (that Scottie Pippen one was impossible to find!). They also backed it up on the court, winning games by between 35 and 70 points every game and having opposing players ask for their autographs. The irony of the deal was that the Dream Team’s worldwide appeal caused its downfall, as countries around the world starting really getting into their hoops, while Americans became cocky. Before long, we weren’t throwing our best team out there, Shawn Kemp was grabbing his crotch at foreign players, and the team ended up so unlikable that some Americans were rooting against their own country. It reached its pinnacle last Olympics when the U.S. settled for the bronze medal. This year, they have actually put together a team so it could turn around, but for now, it’s a fall from grace.
1. Marion Jones
Since she is in a sport which doesn’t get nearly enough attention, she is usually casually mentioned alongside Barry Bonds as another victim of BALCO going down, but hers is way worse. Bonds still has his records, MVPs, and other awards, and isn’t halfway through a six-month prison term.