Sport: Pride and Precocity

TWO more dissimilar Olympians would be hard to imagine. Al Oerter is 32 and white, a hulking 260-pounder who lives with his wife and two children on suburban Long Island and works as supervisor of the computer communications department at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. Bob Beamon is 22, black and bearded, a gangling 160-lb. product of the streets of New York who attends the University of Texas at El Paso on a track scholarship—and says that he would rather be playing basketball. Last week in Mexico City, each in his own way demonstrated...

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