9601240408
DETROIT FREE PRESS
960729
Monday, July 29, 1996
METRO FINAL
1D
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1996, Detroit Free Press
A HUMAN SIDE OF SOVIET FALL
ATLANTA -- The barbell sat there like a mountain. "Go ahead," it seemed
to say, "move me."
Out came the last lifter. He already had won the gold medal; this was for
history. The weight stood at 518 pounds. If he hoisted it to his shoulders,
then pushed it over his head, he would better the world record by more than 16
pounds.
In the audience, his fans waved the flag of Greece.
In the hallway, the silver medalist, from Kazakhstan, watched with intense
interest.
In the waiting room, the bronze medalist, from Ukraine, bit his lip and
stared at the TV screen.
And alongside him, the fourth- and fifth-placers mumbled back and forth in
a shared language. So did the sixth-, seventh- and ninth-place finishers.
They were all speaking Russian. Why not?
They used to all be on the same team.
Now they were pulling for an old friend, Akakide Kakhiashvilis, who looks
like a young Sylvester Stallone. He bent over, heaved on the bar and yanked it
up to his shoulders, the weight so heavy on each side, the bar bent in the
middle. With a huge groan, Akakide Kakhiashvilis pushed that 518 pounds over
his head, wobbled back and forth -- then locked his knees for two seconds and
let out a yell. The crowd roared as he dropped the barbell with an echoing
thud.
Gold medal. World record.
Score one for the old country . . .
. . . wherever she may be.
"This gold medal means as much to me as the one I won in 1992," said
Kakhiashvilis, who now competes for Greece, even though he was born in the
Soviet Union, was trained by the Soviet Union and won the last Olympic gold
for the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. The reason for the change is
simple:
When independence came, weights were less important than a roof over his
head.
Rent-an-athlete
The great unspoken story of these Games -- brought to you by NBC, whose
motto seems to be "If It's Not Red, White and Blue, We're Not Showing It" --
is the success of the many small teams that not so long ago made up one big
team: the Soviet Union.
You remember the Soviet Union, don't you?
It was that evil empire that took little children and tested them at young
ages, then sent them to special sports schools. They were nurtured like lab
rats, trained relentlessly, then they burst on the scene -- "out of nowhere,"
we used to complain -- won all kinds of medals, and were rewarded with
something that their countrymen considered precious, such as toilet paper.
Well, all that ended when the Soviet Union collapsed. The schools closed.
The labs were abandoned. The coaches fled for other nations. With the
exception of East Germany, it was the fastest collapse of a sports superpower
the world had ever seen.
Or was it?
Take a look at your medal standings as we head into the second week of
these Summer Games. Sure, the United States is way out ahead with a
home-field-advantage 54 medals. But who's in second? Russia, with 34 medals,
including 14 golds. And when you read "Russia," that's only a small part of
what Russia used to mean. Add the medals won by Ukraine (8), Belarus (8),
Kazakhstan (5), Uzbekistan (1) and Georgia (1) and the old USSR actually has
three medals more than the States.
And while it's true they wouldn't have all those spots with one team, it's
also true that many of these athletes live in poverty-stricken lands, where
jobs and food are in short supply.
"I had to leave my country because there was nothing left," sighed
Kakhiashvilis. "It wasn't just that there was no bars or no weights. Sometimes
there was no water."
No water?
The Soviet lineup
Kakhiashvilis was lucky. His mother was Greek. He went to her country,
became a citizen immediately and moved his family there. Now, instead of cold
Russian winters he has warm breezes off the Aegean Sea.
But he hasn't forgotten his ties. On the victory stand, he was next to a
man from Kazakhstan (the silver) and Ukraine (bronze.) They were followed in
the standings by another Ukrainian, two Russians and an ex-Russian now
competing for Germany.
That's right. The top seven finishers in one weightlifting event were all
Soviet-born. "On the bus ride over, we talk about the old times,"
Kakhiashvilis said. "Although we are on different teams now, the men on the
bus feel like students of the same big school."
They are joined by the captivating 17-year-old gymnast, Lilia Podkopayeva
of Ukraine, who won the gold medal in the all-around, and the lighting-fast
swimmer Alexander Popov of Russia, who won two individual golds in the
swimming sprints, and the gold-medal rowing team from Belarus and the gold-
winning Greco-Roman wrestler from Kazakhstan.
All students of the same school. All scattered around the world. Imagine if
the U.S. were suddenly divided by states -- one nation from California,
another from Florida. Would we still feel a tie? Would we still feel united?
There were no NBC cameras at weightlifting Sunday. Naturally. No Americans
made the final. But lack of lenses doesn't change results.
Let us be smarter. Let us salute the determination of Olympians who can
still lift mountains when their homelands run short of water. We may not have
always liked the old Soviet Union, but her sons and daughters are a huge
story in America's Summer Olympics. The men on the bus know it, even if NBC
does not.
THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE.
OLYMPIC; COLUMN; SOVIET UNION