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Palaver. All women seem to look pretty good to Mark these days. Over dinner with Coach Chavoor, he prattled incessantly about his cinematic potential: "Maybe I'll do some nudie movies," he said. "I'm hot to trot. Yeah, maybe I'll do a little trotting before we make the movie. One thing for sure, I don't want to end up like Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe. Those guys were looking for something they couldn't seem to find." Accustomed to such palaver, Chavoor offered his usual reply: "You're a nut."
The first week of the Olympics belonged to the nut and to the other swimmers and gymnasts. But the Olympic athletes were not the only young visitors attracting attention in Munich last week. The Olympics is, after all, a Jungenfestspiel, and the jungen have flocked to the merry Bavarian city by the thousands. They gathered under the spreading elm and oak trees flanking the emerald-green lawns of the Englisher Garten, playing their guitars, smoking hand-crafted cigarettes and generally ignoring what a young Iowa girl called "that silly sports effort." Munich's gala atmosphere has also drawn an older, more pecunious group: the international set, complete with titled leaders. Ensconced in carefully protected Hilton Hotel suites, far removed from the surging street crowds, are Prince Philip, Princess Margaret and their highnesses, Rainier and Grace. Unlike the youthful tourists, however, the beautiful people last week showed keen interest in some of the Olympic competition, especially the dressage qualification in horseback riding at the exclusive Riem Riding Academy, and trap and skeet shooting on the elegant Hockbruck course. The man who took home gold that he hardly needed was Neapolitan Hosteler Angelo Scalzone. The impeccable socialite was mobbed by his countrymen and unfashionably tossed into the air. This week the attention of Munich Munich—and the world—will focus on the track and field events. Here the U.S., which was universally conceded supremacy in swimming before the Games began, will face its most severe tests. The biggest single event will be the rematch in the 1,500-meter run between Kansas' erratic, enigmatic Jim Ryun and Kipchoge Keino, the Kenyan who defeated Ryun four years ago for a gold medal in the rarefied atmosphere of Mexico City. Ryun will find Munich more to his lungs' liking. But he must also contend with Keino's "rabbit," Fellow Kenyan Mike Boit, who will probably set a deadly pace early in the race and attempt to lure Ryun along. That might well leave Jim too weary to turn on his famous inishing kick, improving Keino's chances to win.