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I found these comments recently, made by an Olympic medalist--later was a sucessful pro football player--who was watching the U.S. Olympic Trials four years after his own Trials experience:
"I'm at the final trials because I want to sit in the stands and suffer for a few of my friends. Man, I know just how they're gonna feel.
"I've been in a lot of competition in my life, but that Olympic tryout day was the one I can't match. The pressure was so intense I though my legs would drop.
"One time I rubbed my knees and didn't feel anything. My stomace was jumping up and down on my head. When my race came up they called me to the field and all I could say was 'Go Away!' But they dragged me out anyway and when the race started I could hardly remember wher I was.
"After it was over, the excitement of qualifying made me queasier than ever. I went back to the dressing room where I was never so sick, and never so happy, all at the same time.
"Then we went over to Helsinki and all the fellows told me the same--the pressure in the trials was much, much stronger than in the Olympics themselves. In the Tryouts you;'re fighting to make the team. Once you're made it, you're relaxed. You're part of the USA squad, and that's not bad. You have a feeling you have earned your trip, whethery you placed first or third and nobody's gonna take that away from you."
-Ollie Matson, 1952 400m bronze medalist and 4x400 silver medalist, Inductee in the Pro and College Football Halls of Fame
(Appear4ed in Track Newsletter, July 3, 1956)
"I'm at the final trials because I want to sit in the stands and suffer for a few of my friends. Man, I know just how they're gonna feel.
"I've been in a lot of competition in my life, but that Olympic tryout day was the one I can't match. The pressure was so intense I though my legs would drop.
"One time I rubbed my knees and didn't feel anything. My stomace was jumping up and down on my head. When my race came up they called me to the field and all I could say was 'Go Away!' But they dragged me out anyway and when the race started I could hardly remember wher I was.
"After it was over, the excitement of qualifying made me queasier than ever. I went back to the dressing room where I was never so sick, and never so happy, all at the same time.
"Then we went over to Helsinki and all the fellows told me the same--the pressure in the trials was much, much stronger than in the Olympics themselves. In the Tryouts you;'re fighting to make the team. Once you're made it, you're relaxed. You're part of the USA squad, and that's not bad. You have a feeling you have earned your trip, whethery you placed first or third and nobody's gonna take that away from you."
-Ollie Matson, 1952 400m bronze medalist and 4x400 silver medalist, Inductee in the Pro and College Football Halls of Fame
(Appear4ed in Track Newsletter, July 3, 1956)
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