Carl Lewis, already a Hall of Fame member, speaks to new inductees and guests. (Getty Images)(ATR) The U.S. Olympic Committee adds twenty top names to the Hall of Fame roster, including the 1996 women's gymnastics team, ten individual athletes and a former committee vice president.
Some 300 people gathered at the Harris Theater at Millennium Park in Chicago to watch the June 19 induction; nearly a fifth of the audience were either Olympians or Paralympians.
“I think about the hundreds of snapshots on the Olympics and you wonder if you belong. It’s really a thrill," two-time basketball champion David Robinson tells ATR about his induction.
The 2008 inductee class, all champions, also includes wrestler Bruce Baumgartner, marathoner Joan Benoit, figure skater Brian Boitano, boxer Oscar de La Hoya, volleyball player Karch Kiraly, Paralympic swimmer John Morgan, equestrian J. Michael Plumb, swimmer Amy Van Dyken, and shooter Lones W. Wigger, Jr.
Two figure skating experts join in specialist categories: the late Carlo Fassi for coaching and Carol Heiss Jenkins in the veteran category. Hall of Fame inductees pose with their award statues. (Getty Images)
The eight members of the 1996 Olympic champion women's gymnastics team join as well: Amanda Borden, Amy Chow, Dominique Dawes, Shannon Miller, Dominique Moceanu, Jaycie Phelps and Kerri Strug.
Hollywood producer Frank Marshall rounds out the list of inductees, not for his athletic skill, but for his Olympic productions, most importantly the 1996 Olympic opening ceremony and the 1999 documentary "Olympic Glory". Marshall is also a former USOC vice president.
The only athlete not present for their induction was Oscar de la Hoya, who had a scheduling conflict.
Opening the event, Todd Wilson, the CEO of Allstate, the company sponsoring the Hall of Fame said, “in tonight’s honorees we will find strength and passion. These are people who make us proud to be Americans.”
Seen at the event was World Olympians Association President Dick Fosbury, Hall of Fame inductee Shannon Miller coaches a young gymnast at a sport exhibition held ahead of the ceremony and co-organized by Chicago 2016. (Getty Images)leader of the U.S. Olympians Alumni Association Willie Banks, and chairman of the board for World Sport Chicago Bill Scherr. The highest ranking official from the USOC was Bill Scherr’s twin brother, CEO Jim Scherr.
The Hall of Fame inducted its first members in 1983, honoring 21 athletes with medals dating back to the 1900 Games. New classes were named every year until 1992. The initiative then went dormant for 12 years until it was revived in partnership with a sponsor list headed by AllState insurance and including AT&T and Kleenex. New members are now chosen every Olympic year by ballot. The public, Olympians and Paralympians, and the U.S. Olympic family may vote; athlete votes carry the most weight.
A broadcast of the event will air on NBC on August 3 at 1:30, just days before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Olympic broadcaster Jim Lampley is emcee.
Written by Ed Hula III.
Click here to see the latest Around the Rings Olympic Bid Power Index -- the only authoritative ranking of the 2016 bid cities.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
