There is no longer any down time between Olympics.
Now that the Winter Games have been switched to the middle year of the Olympiad–the four-year period climaxed by the Summer Games–even the odd years will have Olympic aftermath or Olympic anticipation.
That has brought more regular recognition to the talented athletes who previously had been celebrated widely for only two fortnights in a single year.
In 1995, for instance, there were no Olympic Games, but runner Michael Johnson’s historic victories in the 200 and 400 meters and speedskater Bonnie Blair’s retirement from the sport she had dominated since 1988 were headline stories in both the United States and the world.
It was also a year notable for the lack of headlines made by the Chinese women, who virtually disappeared from world lists in swimming and track they had dominated until a series of drug busts late in 1994. Meanwhile, the man whose research made those busts possible, German professor Manfred Donike, died in August.
Donike led the efforts to end use of performance-enhancing drugs, efforts whose success has created scandal.
The biggest Olympic-related story of the year showed what a stimulant the Games have become to mass audiences. In two 1995 deals, NBC anted up $3.6 billion for U.S. television rights to five straight Olympics–Summer in 2000, 2004 and 2008; Winter in 2002 and 2006. With an investment like that, NBC is guaranteed to use the stars of the Games for more than just 17 days of programming every two years.
Those stars are singled out here, in our ninth annual medal ceremony for athletes whose primary goals include an Olympic awards stand. In a year without Games, their achievements still were Olympian.
WORLD PERFORMANCES
MEN
Gold: Jonathan Edwards
Silver: U.S. men’s soccer team
Bronze: Elvis Stojko
Jonathan Edwards, Great Britain, triple jump: In his first two jumps at the world championships, the 29-year-old vicar’s son set world records and surpassed two notable barriers, one metric, the other imperial. He opened with history’s first legal (non-wind-aided) jump past 18 meters and followed it with the first past 60 feet.
U.S men’s soccer team: Its 3-0 victory over Argentina in the opening round of the America’s Cup tournament was second only to the triumph over England in the 1950 World Cup among the greatest upset victories in U.S. soccer history. Three or more of the players will be part of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team.
Elvis Stojko, Canada, figure skating: Forced into a difficult recuperation after a severe ankle injury in January, the 22-year-old Stojko came back in March after nearly six weeks off the ice to win a second straight world title by jamming an unplanned combination of triple jumps at the end of his program.
WOMEN
Gold: Gunda Niemann
Silver: Samantha Riley
Bronze: Kim Batten
Gunda Niemann, Germany, speedskating: Niemann, 28, was voted Germany’s female athlete of the year (ahead of Steffi Graf!) for a season climaxed by her winning all four races en route to a fourth title in the World All-Around Championships.
Samantha Riley, Australia, swimming: At the World Short-Course Championships in Brazil, the 23-year-old broke world records on consecutive days, crushing the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke marks set by Guohong Dai of China two years earlier.
Kim Batten, United States, track: Barely two months after undergoing an emergency appendectomy, the 25-year-old from Rochester set a world record of 52.61 while winning the 400-meter hurdles at the world championships. Batten never had run within a second of that time before the world meet, but she needed the record to beat teammate Tanja Buford (who also bettered the previous record) by three inches.
USA PERFORMERS
MEN
Gold: Michael Johnson
Silver: Todd Eldredge
Bronze: Bruce Baumgartner
Michael Johnson, track: Johnson, 27, of Dallas, became the first man to win both the 200- and 400-meter runs at a major international competition when he took the titles at the world championships in Sweden. In 1995, Johnson also extended his six-year winning streak in the 400 to 49 races; was unbeaten in 11 finals at 200; twice broke the world indoor record in the 400; and became the first man since 1899 to win the 200 and 400 at the U.S. Championships.
Todd Eldredge, figure skating: After three years lost to injuries and illness, Eldredge, 23, of South Chatham, Mass., regained the national title he had won in 1990 and 1991 and went on to a silver medal at the world championships. Not since 1925 had a U.S. singles skater gone so long between titles.
Bruce Baumgartner, wrestling: Baumgartner, 35, won his third world title, his record-setting 16th national title and his third Pan Am Games gold medal. He was named U.S. Wrestling’s male athlete of the year for the fifth time and tied Alexandr Medved of the former Soviet Union for the most world-level medals in a career with 12.
WOMEN
Gold: Picabo Street
Silver: Gwen Torrence
Bronze: Dominique Moceanu
Picabo Street, alpine skiing: The effusive 24-year-old from Sun Valley, Idaho, became the first U.S. skier to win the World Cup season downhill title. Street won six of nine downhills, including the final five in a row, and took second in both another downhill and a super-G.
Gwen Torrence, track: The only thing the queen of sprinting could not outrun was her constant companion: controversy. Torrence, 30, of Atlanta, was first across the finish line at the world championships in both the 100 and 200 meters, but lost the 200 title for running out of her lane. That disqualification started a feud between her and Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey, who inherited the title and called Torrence a cheater.
Dominique Moceanu, gymnastics: At 14, she became the youngest all-around national champion in U.S. history. Moceanu, of Houston, also won the only individual medal for the United States at the 1995 world championships and was the top U.S. finisher (fifth) in the all-around.
WORLD PERFORMERS
WOMEN
Gold: Ana Quirot
Silver: Vreni Schneider
Bronze: Larisa Lazhutina
Ana Quirot, Cuba, track: Two years after nearly dying from a fire caused by a kerosene explosion in her kitchen, after seven skin-graft surgeries and eight months in and out of hospitals, Quirot returned to the international track circuit and won the world championship at 800 meters. Although her face, neck, arms and hands are scarred badly by the third-degree burns on 38 percent of her body, the 32-year-old Quirot ran nearly as fast as she had in the past.
Vreni Schneider, Switzerland, alpine skiing: Schneider, 30, ended what quietly has been the greatest career in women’s alpine skiing by winning her third overall World Cup title, sixth slalom season title and fifth giant slalom season title. Schneider retired in April with five Olympic medals (three gold, one silver, one bronze) and six World Championship medals (three gold, two silver, one bronze).
Larisa Lazhutina, Russia, Nordic skiing: Lazhutina, 29, won three individual gold medals and a relay gold in cross-country skiing at the world championships. That made her the first athlete to win four golds at a world Nordic meet.
MEN
Gold: Alberto Tomba
Silver: Denis Pankratov
Bronze: Haile Gebrselassie
Alberto Tomba, Italy, alpine skiing: The most colorful skier in the last quarter-century had the best season of his extraordinary career. At 28, Tomba won 11 races on the World Cup circuit, topping his previous season-best of nine. He also won his first overall title despite skiing only half the disciplines (slalom and giant slalom). That made Tomba, who had been second overall three times, the first skier since Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark in 1978 to win the overall title without competing in the speed events.
Denis Pankratov, Russia, swimming: Pankratov set world records and won European titles in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly events. A human Red October who has brought the submarine start method to the butterfly, the 20-year-old Pankratov broke the oldest record in swimming when he swam the 100 in 52.32 seconds, erasing the :52.84 set by Pablo Morales of the U.S. in 1986.
Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopia, track: The 23-year-old shattered the world records for 5,000 and 10,000 meters and set a meet record while winning the world title in the 10,000. Gebrselassie lowered the 10,000 record by nearly nine seconds to 26:52.23 and took 10.35 seconds off the 5,000 with a 12:44.95.
