This video covers events that took place in Day 2 of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games….featuring the men’s track cycling sprint finals with USA cyclists Mark Gorski and Nelson Vails in awesome head to head competition for the gold medal….followed by the track & field men’s triple jump with Americans Mike Conley, Al Joyner and Willie Banks along with Great Britian’s Keith Conner….with the final featured sport of the day, ABC gives the viewer a wonderful perspective of the sport of equestrian team eventing competition In which the USA Team of Michael Plumb, Karen Stives, Torrance Fleischmann and Bruce Davidson win gold.
The men’s sprint cycling event at the 1984 Summer Olympics took place from July 31st to August 3rd….and was one of eight cycling events at the 1984 Olympics….as the gold medal….as seen in this video below…was won by USA Mark Gorski….with silver going to Nelson Vails….and bronze to Japan’s Tsutomu Sakamoto….with my favorite part of the film being the ABC profile of USA Nelson Vail’s path to the Olympics.
The triple jump….which is sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump….is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the “horizontal jumps.” The competitor runs down the track and performs a hop….a bound….and then a jump into the sand pit. The triple jump was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games and has been a modern Olympics event since the Games’ inception in 1896. According to IAAF rules….“the hop shall be made so that an athlete lands first on the same foot as that from which he has taken off; in the step he shall land on the other foot, from which, subsequently, the jump is performed.”
The Men’s Triple Jump event at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California had an entrylist of 28 competitors, with two qualifying groups (28 jumpers) before the final (12) took place on August 4, 1984. The top twelve and ties, and all those reaching 16.60 metres advanced to the final….in which USA Al Joyner won the gold medal….USA Mike Conley the silver….GB Keith Conner the bronze….and USA Willie Banks came in 6th….so the USA had 3 of the 6 best triple jumpers in the world in 1984….pretty strong team we’d say.
The equestrian events at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics included show jumping, dressage and eventing. All three disciplines had both individual and team competitions. The equestrian sports were held primarily at Santa Anita Racetrack, which offered stabling for up to 2100 horses, a grandstand with almost 16000 seats….which was “jammed packed” when # 1 Sportsphile, Bone Daddy, saw live and in color….which is another story that I have written and will post in my L E’s Stories Section here at Ima Sportsphile…..cuz Bone Daddy set Olympic history in 1984 by establishing a record that can never be broken…only tied….by seeing a live event in every sport at the 1984 L A Games….evidenced by the T-shirt, button and ticket collection being featured in our Memorabilia section.
Simply put, this video is well worth the watch….as Jim McKay and the ABC crew put their magical touch on this production….and like we have had to do on occasion before….we are sorry for the sound quality of this reproduction.
