As with every day’s telecast of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics….ABC Sports did an incredible job of covering each and every sport at each venue with the best assembled team of broadcasters ever put together for an Olympic Game….and the day covered in this video herewith is no exception. This telecast leads off with hosts Frank Gifford and Kathleen Sullivan setting up the day’s televised events…. which lead off with the Equestrian Team Show Jumping Competition held at Santa Anita Park….with legendary broadcaster Chris Schenkel and Bill Steinhaus….in an absolutely stunning event that was eventually won by the USA Team of Joseph Fargis and Touch of Class….Conrad Homfeld and Abdullah…. Leslie Howard and Albany…..and Melanie Smith and Calypso…..as the silver medal was won by Great Britain….with bronze being taken by West Germany.
The program then shifts to Cynthia Potter and Jack Whitaker covering the Mens 10m Platform Diving Competition featuring probably the greatest diver of all time in USA’s Greg Louganis….in a competition that was split into two phases….the Preliminary round….which is seen in this video herewith….as each diver performed ten dives….with the twelve (12) divers with the highest scores advancing to the finals…..where the divers performed another set of ten dives and the score here obtained determined the final ranking…..as USA Greg Louganis wins gold….and fellow American Bruce Kimble takes the silver medal…..with China’s Li Kongzheng winning the bronze….as Kongzheng is also the featured athlete in a wonderful ABC Profile short.
Platform diving is followed by Al Michaels look at Brazil’s Joachim Cruz in track & field 800m race….where there were four notable front runners in a battle down the backstretch to set a new World Record….as Edwin Koech on the far outside and Joaquim Cruz went out hard around the final turn….with USA’s Earl Jones and Johnny Gray to the inside….with the lead group being marked by British rivals and defending champion Steve Ovett and world record holder Sebastian Coe. Gray’s added speed seemed to force the leaders to run faster to stay ahead of him….and while Ovett withered out the back of the field…. Gray seemed to tighten up…. Cruz inched closer to Koech, still marked by Coe and Jones….and when Cruz pounced coming off the turn….Koech wilted….as outside of him Coe and Jones were in a shoulder to shoulder sprint battle. Cruz had won the war, sprinting away to a clear 5 metre victory….as Coe was able to make a slight gain on Jones to take silver….and Jones held on for bronze….and a new World Record was set. The telecast shifts to free style wrestling and USA Ed Banach in a preliminary match on his way to winning gold along with his twin brother Lou.
After a shift to Howard Cosell at the boxing venue covering USA middleweight Virgil Hill’s silver medal fight against South Korea gold medal winner Shin Joon-Sup….the program returns to Chris Schenkel at the Equestrian Team Show Jumping gold medal ride by Joe Fargis and his brilliant mount Touch of Class.
All in all….this was a very eventful day in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics….and is well worth the watch for any fan of the Olympic Games.
