O.P.I.

[DoubleRBar]

Happy 58th birthday today (Thursday) to an Olympic champion who was also a World Champion, but not in the hurdles.

Unscramble the following four letters to get a clue that might help you determine the name of our birthday athlete: U - A, B, C.

Our birthday individual was not born in Africa, Australia, South America, or North America.

Unscramble these seven letters to help with those other four letters above: Y? Octobt?

This champion competed in only one Olympic Games and those Games were not in Europe.

Please try and name our birthday athlete for this first Thursday of November.

[Olli]

Hmm, scrambling those letters might give Cuba and Boycott, but the athlete was not born in the Americas...

[DoubleRBar]

Cuba and boycott are right, Olli. Now, what Olympic Games did Cuba boycott that opened the door for our birthday athlete to win the Olympic gold medal?

[Tuariki]

Cuba boycotted 1984 and 1988.
1984 is, I think a red herring, and also the age suggests Seoul more likely.

In 1988 Sotomayor was probably a favourite for the high jump.

My guess is the winner of men's high jump. German or Russian

[Trickstat]

I think the 1988 Olympic HJ champ was the Soviet jumper Gennadiy Avdeyenko(sp?)?

[DoubleRBar]

Happy birthday today (58) to Gennadiy Avdeyenko and very good, Trickstat.

You had a "little" help from Tuariki which means you are working together.

Avdeyenko did win the 1988 Seoul Olympic men's high jump (2.38, 7' 9 3/4") and yes, Javier Sotomayor did not compete in South Korea because of the Cuban boycott.

Avdeyenko won the 1983 World Championships in Helsinki where he was definitely not the favorite going into that competition. In fact, you might say he was an unknown factor in Finland.

Gennadiy Avdeyenko trained at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute.

Thank you, Trickstat, Tuariki, and Olli.

[noone]

Avdeyenko and a young pole vaulter named Sergej Bubka were surprise winners in Helsinki. Coach Igor Ter-Ovanessian proudly proclaimed: "I picked them!"

[DoubleRBar]

True story: I had a very good friend who was well-known in track & field and we sat together at the 1983 World Championships. After Sergey Bubka won the pole vault in Helsinki, my friend said, "Well, you'll never hear from him (Bubka) again!"

This friend and I sat together at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and when Bubka won the gold medal (his only Olympic gold), I said to him, "Is that the same guy who won in Helsinki?"

I apologize if I have already told this story, but I don't get a lot of opportunities to tell it. Thank you, noone.

[Olli]

What does O.P.I. stand for?

[tandfman]

What does O.P.I. stand for?

He answered that question when he wrote : Gennadiy Avdeyenko trained at the Odessa Polytechnic Institute.

[Olli]

Oh yes, sloppy reading by me.