Mal Whitfield, a gold-medal winner at Helsinki and London, punished his aching body to the limit and sped past the 800-meter finish only a tenth of a second slower than his Olympic record of 1952. But he could not win. He was fifth. Whitfield's plight was typical of last week's two-day Olympic trials at Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum.
The trials were probably the greatest display of mass U.S. track-and-field prowess in history, and by their records the U.S. should have the greatest team it has ever sent to the Olympics. In six events, U.S....
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
