The Kid

[DoubleRBar]

Happy 68th birthday today (Monday) to an Olympic champion who competed in two Olympic Games and won gold and silver medals at those two Games.

This birthday person shares the same initials as another famous person from the same country.

The other famous person (with same initials) is not famous because of track and field.

You might be able to tell how this other famous person became famous by reading the "sentence" below.

The day the Earth stood still, the sound of music over the sand pebbles would run silent, run deep with the andromeda strain on the west side story.

The day our birthday athlete was born, this other famous individual (with same initials) was already 38 years old

No hurdles were involved with our birthday champion's Olympic event.

Remember that other famous person (with the same initials)?

Well, this other famous person died approximately 200 miles (321 kms) from the place where our birthday champion was born.

If our birthday athlete had been born just 24 hours later, that date would match the world junior record that this person set in winning the Olympic gold medal.

Had there been no Olympic boycott in 1980, our birthday champion would have competed in three Olympic Games.

Go ahead and name this Olympian with a birthday on this penultimate Monday of August.

[Olli]

This might be the Munich long jump winner, but my head is leaking: what was his name again? If my dementia gets better, I'll send a new post.

[Olli]

Did Arnie Robinson win in Munich or Montreal???

[DoubleRBar]

It's not Arnie Robinson.

[Davidokun]

Randy Williams?

[Olli]

That was the name I tried to find...

[DoubleRBar]

Happy 68th birthday today to Randy Williams. Nice going, Davidokun. You were on the right runway, Olli.

Randy Williams was only 19 years old (like Athing Mu) when he won the 1972 Munich long jump with a world junior record of 8.24. Of course his birthday is 8.23.

Four years later in Montreal, Williams took the Olympic silver medal in back of Arnie Robinson

The Moscow boycott (Soviet Union in Afghanistan) in 1980 prevented Randy Williams from a third Olympic Games in the long jump.

Randy was born in Fresno, California, went to Edison High School, and then the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Thank you Davidokun and Olli.

[gh]

.......

You might be able to tell how this other famous person became famous by reading the "sentence" below.

The day the Earth stood still, the sound of music over the sand pebbles would run silent, run deep with the andromeda strain on the west side story.

......

Michael Rennie, Julie Andrews, Steve McQueen, Clark Gable & Burt Lancaster, Michel Crichton, Leonard Bernstein..... ok, I give up! (Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!)

[DoubleRBar]

An American who directed all six of the movies included in that sentence. This director shared the same initials with Randy Williams.

[tandfman]

The Moscow boycott (Soviet Union in Afghanistan) in 1980 prevented Randy Williams from a third Olympic Games in the long jump..

After the Moscow boycott was proposed by the White House, but before the USOC decided to accept that proposal and not send a team to Moscow, a track friend of mine said "I wouldn't care if the Soviets PAVED Afghanistan."

A witty comment at the time, and one that keeps entering my mind lately as frequent emails from various news sources provide me with an overwhelming amount of information about you-know-where.

[Tuariki]

A really great and humble person was Randy. We tied for the longest jump at the Pac 8 in 1974, but Rabdy won on countback, that day I flipped out in the LA Colesium.

[cigar95]

Possible correction - did not Williams set a WJR in the qualifying which was longer than his jump the next day in the finals? Looking it up, 8.34 in the prelims still stands as the AJR.

[DoubleRBar]

Yes, Randy's 8.34 did come in the qualifying round. That was the best leap of his career. He won the Olympic final at 8.24. Interesting side note: Lynn Davies (1964 Tokyo champion) and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan (bronze medals in Rome and Tokyo Olympics) failed to make the 1972 long jump final. Munich was Ter-Ovanesyan's fifth Games. It was the third Games for Davies.

Thank you, cigar95.