Long-winded and proud, Indian runners raced through the streets of Mexico City to carry a flaming torch into a vast lava bed that lies on the edge of their capital. As twilight settled over the University of Mexico's vast Olympic Stadium, 21 guns boomed in salute, the last runner lit the "eternal" Olympic fire, and President Adolfo Ruiz Cortines opened the second Pan-American Games.
Even before the flag-raising was finished, a U.S. boxer collapsed—starved for oxygen in the high (7,800 ft.), thin air—and had to be carried off. Next day, when some 2,000 competitors from 22 American republics began the more strenuous...
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