Two
Los Angeles 1984 Olympics (Rhythmic
Gymnastics & Closing Ceremony) ticket stubs
This
is the history you would have witnessed on these dates.
August 11
Rhythmic
Gymnastics Finals (This was the first time this event was held at the Olympics): The gold medal went to Lori Fung (Canada), the
silver to Doina Staiculescu
(Romania), and the bronze to Regina
Weber (W. Germany). Out of the final
20 competitors the two Americans, Valerie
Zimring & Michelle Berube, finished
11th and 14th respectively. At the time of her upset victory, Fung was
ranked only 23rd in the world.
Zimring had taken up rhythmic gymnastics after a stress fracture in her
back discovered at age 11 forced her give up traditional gymnastics. Berube later has small roles in Tarantino
films From Dusk til Dawn & Jackie Brown.
August 12
Olympics
Closing Ceremony ticket stub (originally issued to
a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee)
The ceremony,
attended by 100,000 spectators, began with the finish of the Men’s Marathon which had begun at 5:00
p.m. in very warm conditions. The race
featured 107 runners from 59 countries, 78 finished. Carlos
Lopes (Portugal) won the gold medal in a time of 2:09:21, setting an Olympic
record that lasted for 24 years. John Treacy (Ireland) took the silver
with a time of 2:09:56 and Charlie
Spedding (Great Britain) was 2 seconds later for the bronze. U.S. runners Pete Pfitzinger and Alberto
Salazar finished 11th and 15th respectively. Runners kept entering the stadium for their
final lap for 43 minutes until the final runner, Dieudonné LaMothe (Haiti) finished in the stadium at 2:52:18. Lopes gold was the first one for Portugal
ever in any Olympic event. He was also
the oldest to win the event. In addition
to the marathon, the final equestrian medals were awarded and the competitors
cantered around the stadium to cheers.
Once the race was
over a huge flying saucer hovered over the stadium and egaged in a light
show/music exchange with the orchestra a la the end of the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Then Lionel
Ritchie, just beginning his solo career, appeared and sang a 9 minute
version of All Night Long as break
dancers careened around him, one of whom was a young Cuba Gooding.
The closing fireworks display
literally filled the sky for 30 minutes.