Americans don`t have to wait for the Winter Olympics to bring home the gold. While the world`s athletes converge on Albertville, France, we can savor the triumphs of the heroes and hopefuls of Olympics past on home video.
This year there will be more extensive television coverage of the Olympics than ever. CBS and TNT cable have scheduled 161 hours for the Winter Games, and this summer NBC will participate with Cablevision in ”Olympics TripleCast,” the first pay-per-view presentation of the Olympics, offering 24-hour coverage of 17 events simultaneously on three cable channels.
Get yourself in shape for the long, grueling hours of Olympic-watching ahead with these commemorative videos that preserve historic highlights and the dramatic personal stories.
Highlights of the 1988 Summer Olympics, culled from NBC Sports` coverage, are available in six volumes on Wood Knapp Video. Each tape spotlights a different sport: boxing, gymnastics, men`s and women`s track and field, volleyball and water sports.
”The Official 1988 Winter Olympic Video,” available on CBS Fox Video Sports, is an exhilarating souvenir of the Calgary games. Thrill again to unlikely folk hero Eddie ”The Eagle” Edwards, and the Jamaican luge team.
Award-winning sports documentary filmmaker Bud Greenspan directed ”16 Days of Glory” and ”16 Days of Glory Part II,” which chronicle the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and the feats of Edwin Moses, Rowdy Gaines, Joan Benoit, Mary Lou Retton, Greg Louganis and Carl Lewis.
”Great Sports Moments of the `80s,” also available on CBS Fox Video Sports, replays the ”Do you believe in miracles?” defeat of the Soviets by the U.S. hockey team at the 1980 Lake Placid games. The made-for-TV movie
”Miracle on Ice,” starring Karl Malden as coach Herb Brooks, dramatizes one of America`s greatest Olympic triumphs.
”Magic Moments on Ice,” another CBS Fox Video Sports release, spans three decades of international figure skating competition, one of the Winter Games` most popular events. The Olympic highlights include John Curry in 1976, Robin Cousins in 1980, Scott Hamilton in 1984, and 1988`s ”Battle of the Brians”-Boitano and Orser-in Calgary.
Greenspan`s greatest sports filmmaking achievement is his Emmy Award-winning ”The Olympiad” series, available on Paramount Home Video. Representative of this stirring series is ”Jesse Owens Returns to Berlin,”
in which Owens returns to the site of the 1936 Berlin games, where he shattered Hitler`s showcase for his ”master race” by winning four gold medals.
Other programs in the series include ”Great Moments at the Winter Games,” featuring triple alpine skiing champion Jean-Claude Killy and skater Sonja Henie. ”An Olympic Symphony” sets a visual panorama of the Olympic Games to the music of Handel, Beethoven and Glazanov.
”They Didn`t Have a Chance” salutes those athletes who triumphed over near-impossible obstacles to become Olympic champions.
”The Rare Ones” honors such legendary athletes as Polish track star Irena Szewinska, U.S. hurdler Harrison Dillard and U.S. and Italian divers Pat McCormick and Klaus Dibiasi, who dominated their events for years.
Olympic champions have inspired Hollywood to dramatize their life stories for the big and small screen. Perhaps the most renowned, ”Chariots of Fire,” ran away with four Academy Awards, including best picture. Ben Cross and the late Ian Charleson star in the inspiring true story of two men-devout Scottish missionary Eric Lidell and Jewish Cambridge student Harold Abrahams-who compete in the 1924 Olympics.
Dorian Harewood and Shirley Jo Finney portray two American sports legends in the made-for-television dramas ”The Jesse Owens Story” and ”Wilma,”
which portrays Wilma Rudolph`s triumph over polio to become a champion.
The Tokyo Olympics served as the backdrop for Cary Grant`s last film,
”Walk Don`t Run,” a romantic comedy in which he plays matchmaker between Samantha Eggar and Olympic athlete Jim Hutton.
Egotistical skier Robert Redford learns about teamwork when he joins the U.S. Olympic team in Michael Ritchie`s ”Downhill Racer.”
